Sudders said the state plans to remove attendants from other state-hired call centers, according to lawmakers, two of whom said Sudders explicitly said that no one would be transferred from the customer service center to state unemployment insurance.
But the main details of the plan seemed fluid. Sudders said in general that 400 to 450 attendants could handle up to 10,000 calls, according to lawmakers, but she did not say how many employees would work at the center.
Lawmakers said they also did not know whether the hotline would be accessible in multiple languages, something experts and lawmakers have asked for since Governor Charlie Baker said on Thursday that the state would establish a call center next week.
“I don’t think it will obviously be enough. But I think it’s a start, ”said state senator Anne M. Gobi, a Spencer Democrat who was on the Sudders liaison. Gobi is one of 60 lawmakers who endorse legislation introduced by Senator Eric P. Lesser that would require the state to create a 24-hour hotline for people who are looking for doses.
Kate Reilly, a spokeswoman for the state’s COVID-19 Command Center, did not answer questions about the call on Friday, saying more the information is expected next week.
The current, online-only system for scheduling vaccination appointments has frustrated many eligible residents, especially the elderly, and has put people who cannot readily access the Internet at a disadvantage.
The available consultations, in turn, were quickly won, including in the vaccination mega-sites at Gillette Stadium and Fenway Park, with demand rapidly increasing the state’s already underutilized vaccine supply. Mass vaccination for people aged 75 and over are scheduled to start on Monday.
Officials in other states have created systems for making appointments over the phone, including Florida. In Alabama, a state of 4.9 million, authorities created an online portal, but only after the toll-free number created to schedule appointments was flooded with 1.1 million calls on the first day.
Sudders admitted to lawmakers that the Massachusetts website “was not consumer friendly,” said Sen. Rebecca L. Rausch, a Democrat from Needham who was on the call on Friday.
“I can’t get rid of the question of why it wasn’t done before and why the site is a disaster,” said Rausch of creating the hotline. “A public outcry from Stockbridge to Boston and an emergency legislative bill from the Legislature shouldn’t have been needed to get a much better call center or website.”
Establishing the helpline will require an effort on the scale of the dramatic expansion of the state of your unemployment insurance call center during the pandemic beginning, according to Cimarron Buser, chief executive of The Appointment Scheduling & Booking Industry Association, a software industry business group based in Wellesley Hills.
“If you want to avoid the next problem, which is people calling. . . and they’re put on hold, so you haven’t really solved the problem, ”said Buser. “You just switched to a new medium.”
As the pandemic quickly wiped out jobs in the spring, overwhelming the Unemployment Assistance Department’s customer service center with calls, employees increased their staff from 50 to almost 2,000 people at any given time. It now has 670 employees handling an average of 16,000 calls a day, officials said.
Lesser, a Democrat from Longmeadow, said that ideally, the call center would have enough staff so people wouldn’t wait more than 30 minutes. “This needs to be a one-stop shop,” he said.
The introduction of the hotline is a late opportunity to address some of the deficiencies in the vaccine registration system, according to public health advocates.
Carlene Pavlos, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association, said it is crucial that the hotline is available in multiple languages.
“The access vehicles being created by the administration are much easier for those who already speak English, have a good connection to the Internet, have access to a primary care doctor with whom they talk frequently – who is already connected”, Pavlos said . “It is precisely those communities that experience disenfranchisement and historical racism and may not speak English as a first language that are being left behind.”
Al Vega, director of policies and programs for the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, wants to see more urgency regarding accessibility.
“I really hope the governor will continue to hear what those needs are and do good things like launching this hotline, but I hope he will be able to do them more efficiently and urgently,” said Vega. “Because obviously people are in desperate need.”
Matt Stout can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @mattpstout. Andy Rosen can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @andyrosen.