Five Problems You’ll Face with COVID-19 Vaccine Registrations and a Solution [Part 1]

With the rollout of the COVID vaccine, the process has become a bit of a headache for many. Issues have come up throughout the whole process from registration to vaccination and follow up. Cities, counties, healthcare organizations, and any organization tasked with distributing the vaccine are dealing with multiple systems and tools, trying to ensure that the information is accurate across all platforms while also anxiously waiting on the arrival of more vaccines. Let’s examine some of the problems that many are currently facing.

1) Website Issues

The first step to manage the distribution of the vaccine is to register people. Unfortunately, many city and county websites and systems aren’t equipped for huge surges in traffic. According to Modern Healthcare, “Neither the county health department drive-through sites, nor the … vaccine scheduling website was designed to accommodate the monumental surge we are currently experiencing,” the state Health Department said. State officials said they “understand the frustration brought on by this sudden change of plans.” Organizations will need to figure out how to manage the flow of traffic and ensure that people are able to register for the allotted number of vaccines. Partnering with a vaccine management solution that has the technological capability to handle more traffic can help because then you’ll be able to direct traffic to sign up through that partner.  

2) Capturing Information Upfront vs At Vaccination Site 

Another issue that you will have to consider is whether you should capture information upfront or wait for people to come into the vaccination site. If you wait for people to come to the vaccination site and then either use paper forms or register people with an iPad, it will take longer than registering beforehand. You will also encounter issues with handwritten forms because staff may have to deal with illegible handwriting, leading to mistakes from misspelled names to incorrect phone numbers. Imagine the amount of time and people that you will have to invest to distribute 1,000 vaccines. (ex. For 1,000 vaccines, 1,000 people show up and it takes at least 5 minutes to transition each person through if filling out the form online at the door. This will take at least 5,000 minutes (5 minutes per person) or 83 hours.  You will need at least 11 people to work registration for 8 hours that day). We recommend capturing information before people show up to the vaccination site to cut down on check in time and improve accuracy.  

Learn about the last 3 problems you’ll face and a solution in the next blog post. 

Looking for help with your vaccine distribution? Reach out to us and we can help guide you through the process.