Some Mid-Missouri health providers ‘inundated’ with vaccine scheduling and information requests

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Several health leaders in Mid-Missouri reporting large numbers of requests to receive the COVID-19 vaccine as the state expands who can get it.

During the Cole County Health Department Press Briefing Thursday, major healthcare providers urged citizens to be patient, as more and more calls come in.

"Many of the offices right now are being inundated with calls and calls back, and multiple things back and forth," Dr. Randall Haight with Capital Region Medical Center in Jefferson City said.

Several health providers in Cole County have started administering the vaccine to people in the next phase of the state's distribution plan, largely widening the net of those eligible.

"We are having some patients that are calling 3 to 4 times in an hour and leaving messages, and that is making it difficult for us trying to get everyone on the list who needs to," Haight said.

The first step for the public is to make sure they qualify on the state's COVID-19 Vaccine Website. If a patient does qualify in Cole County, they are asked to call their primary care provider to get on a waitlist for the vaccine.

Some organizations, like Jefferson City Medical Group, are using an online form to sign people up for the vaccine.

"We certainly understand, we want to give out as many vaccines as we can, but we are limited due to the number of doses that we receive," Haight said.

Dr. Lenora Adams with SSM Health St. Mary's in Jefferson City said they are running into issues with people calling multiple health care providers and getting on multiple lists.

She said each time they open a vile, which contains about 6 doses, it has to be used within a short period of time. Issues arise when someone was scheduled to be vaccinated but has already received a dose from another provider.

"If you were vaccinated elsewhere, but you were called in to get your vaccine and you don't show up because you already got it from somewhere else, then we are scrambling to make sure we have a patient to get that vaccine too because we don't want to waste it, it's a very precious resource," Adams said.

The Columbia/Boone County Health Department is reporting it's healthcare partners are also fielding several calls about the vaccination process and asking when they can sign up.

A spokeswoman for the health department Sara Humm said people are encouraged to fill out either the MU Health Care Survey or the Boone Hospital survey. She said filling out both is fine, as it is just informational and will alert the patient when eligible.

"We just don't have the available supply right now to move as quickly as folks for like and honestly as quickly as we would like to move through those phases and tiers," Humm said.

Humm shared the concern of people registering for multiple vaccines one large scale registration starts in Boone County.

"We're working without healthcare partners here locally to figure out the best ways to try to mitigate that," Humm said.

MU Health Care said it has seen "substantial public interest" in it's online notification form, and that it is ok to do other survey's as it's just informational.

Boone Hospital said they are working on a joint statement with the other hospitals and the health department on this topic to be released in the near future.