News

Some exult, others fume as clinics struggle to meet demand for vaccine

The Henderson County Health Department announced on its Covid-19 page Monday that it had exhausted the supply of vaccines. A day later, the Health Department announced the call center would reopen Wednesday to book 700 vaccine appointments.

By Bill Moss, Published: January 19, 2021

People in the newly expanded pool of eligibility hoping for a Covid-19 vaccine clearly fall into one of two camps. Those who get a shot exult. Those on hold fume.

“It went beautifully,” Lesley Cosmano, who along with her husband retired to Hendersonville from Maine about a year ago, said as she walked away from the vaccination clinic at Blue Ridge Community College run by Pardee UNC Health Friday. “They were polite, they were well organized, they were efficient. There was a line but they kept it going. They took good care of me.”
She said she called for an appointment and waited on hold for 40 minutes before someone picked up and completed her appointment. Her only complaint was that she had to make a separate call to sign up her husband. When she told the scheduler she needed to accompany her husband, who suffers from dementia, the person said “absolutely.”
“I’m tickled pink about that,” she said.
Bruce Mills’ experience could not be farther removed.
“I called the health department line and waited two hours in their queue to try to get in and after two hours the phone system just kicked me out of the queue,” he said. “I called the health department line over 100 times before I could even get into the queue to wait and then I waited 2½ hours and no one picked up. If they can’t schedule any more appointments, why don’t they simply out that message on their phone lines instead of letting people like me wait for 2½ hours.”
Mills, who is 71, said he has underlying medical conditions that make him vulnerable to complications from the coronavirus.
Demand for a Covid-19 shot increased dramatically when Gov. Roy Cooper dropped the age minimum of Group 2 from 75 to 65. The new eligibility total is estimated to top 30,000 people in Henderson County, roughly a quarter of the population, at a time when vaccine supply remains very limited, the Health Department said last week.
“We ask for the public’s patience since greater numbers of individuals will be pursuing a very limited amount of vaccine,” Health Director Steve Smith said. “We are all committed to providing vaccinations as quickly as possible based on vaccine supply.”
Mills wishes the county would have held off on expanding the pool.
“They should have made the same decision that Buncombe County did and be honest with the public and say, ‘Oh my gosh, we can’t even get close to vaccinating everyone over 75,’” he said. “It truly is a disservice to the public. I would have been content to say, I’ll wait now until they get to our level. And honestly it’s a disservice to the public health workers to get the wrath of the public when it’s totally unnecessary.”
Actually, the county health department’s Covid-19 web page is now providing the updates Mills asked for.
“All available vaccine appointments have been booked for supply on hand,” the health department said in a post on Monday. On Tuesday came an update: The call center resumed making vaccine appointments on Wednesday morning. (828-585-4700). “Please note that extraordinary call volumes are expected when the call center opens,” the health department said. “Approximately 700 appointments will be scheduled based on available supply. A recorded message will play once all available appointments have been booked.”

‘Call lines are jammed’

Two county commissioners said they thought the vaccinations were going well despite the signup challenges, given the very limited supply and stretched personnel.
“We have heard that it’s a struggle to get through on the health department lines so we’ve discussed increasing capacity of the lines and even adding people to answer the phones,” Commissioner Rebecca McCall said. When Gov. Roy Cooper announced the expanded pool, the county made the decision to match state guidelines. “He did that kind of suddenly yesterday but we are trying to ramp up for that,” McCall said Friday. “It just kind opened the floodgates and hit us all at once. I would just ask people to be as patient as they can and understand that they will get vaccinated.”
The limited supply and the lack of information in advance on the next allocation, McCall said, make it hard to play.
“We don’t know how many (doses) we’re going to get and not everybody is going to ask for the vaccine,” she said. “Quite frankly, my big concern is the teachers. I want to see that offered to the teachers so we can get the children back in school.”
State Rep. Tim Moffitt assured her during a virtual appearance last week that shots for teachers “would be a topic when they reconvened” the General Assembly next week. “Because of the 65 age group being added (teachers) were pushed even further out. That’s very concerning to me. People who are retired — they’re in a better position to stay at home or keep their distance.”
Commissioner Daniel Andreotta was impressed with what he observed when he visited the health department vaccination site at BRCC on Friday.
“From what I can see we have some phenomenal work going on,” he said. “We have a lot of entities partnering together — Pardee, the health department, BRCC, even Kenmure is helping out” by providing golf carts to shuttle people from clinics to their cars.
“The call lines are jammed, which they’re going to be,” Andreotta added. “That’s probably the worst part of the process and I’m sure they’re doing their best with that. Just today I was able to see first-hand and kind of walk through the process at one of the vaccination sites. … This pandemic is far less than perfect which means the way out of it is going to be far less than perfect. … I think everybody needs to take a deep breath of calm and understand that good things are happening.”

Lots of patients with little patience

Vaccine doses are trickling out from a soaker hose when a firehose is needed.
“It’s hard to bridge because there are lot of logistical challenges in this vaccine,” David Ellis, chief medical officer at Pardee UNC Health Care, said in an interview Friday. “No. 1 it’s a very manpower intensive process to get phones answered, to get people registered,” track each shot and staff clinics. Pardee had been getting 975 doses until last week, when it received no allocation.
“The amount of vaccine is a finite amount,” Ellis said. “If you look at 975 doses a week that’s the tip of the iceberg in terms of getting the county vaccinated. We can only open the number of slots for appointments for the vaccinations that we have and therein lies the frustration.”
Ellis and McCall both praised the dozens of health care workers — and other draftees on the front lines — who are toiling around the clock to get shots in arms.
“The public cannot even imagine the number of people that are working on this and these are people that have fulltime jobs” unrelated to public health. “They are just doubling up and the number of people working extremely hard is just a huge.” Many have been repurposed, others are volunteering. “Yelling at somebody on the phone who’s doing this as a volunteer doesn’t help anybody,” Dr. Ellis said.
McCall added: “Steve Smith is dedicating all his time to this vaccination process and he is redirecting staff members to assist is in this and the county is supporting him with anything he needs.”
McCall shared an email county commissioners from a retiree who received a shot last week at the Health Department’s clinic at East Henderson.
“I was expecting a long wait and fearful of crowding,” the constituent wrote. “I had virtually no wait time, except when they were entering me in the computer. I looked around while they were doing this and saw very many frail elderly people, some of whom had mobility issues and most likely limited stamina.
“There were chairs, wheelchairs and MOST OF ALL, caring staff. The personnel at every step were pro-active in assuring the comfort and safety of the clients. They were offering chairs, accompanying some to the next stage, reaching out and asking if there was a need, etc. I felt so warm and cared for, seeing this pleasant, caring staff taking care of, and anticipating the individual needs of, this fragile group. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for the kindness shown.”

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The Health Department announced on Tuesday that its call center will resume making vaccine appointments on Wednesday morning. To make an appointment call 828-585-4700. Extraordinary call volumes are expected. Approximately 700 appointments will be scheduled this week based on available supply. A recorded message will play once all available appointments have been booked. Other providers are Blue Ridge Health, Pardee UNC Health and AdventHealth. Check for availability. Making an appointment on line is recommended.