‘Kind of a crapshoot:’ Frustrated NC seniors navigate fractured COVID vaccine process
Everybody who tries to get the COVID-19 vaccine in North Carolina has a story. Sometimes it’s one of success, but often it’s about being kept on hold for an hour or more or about websites that crash or simply say all the available appointments are taken.
It took Alan Tharp of Raleigh five days of trying at Duke, UNC and WakeMed, as well as his primary care physician, before an appointment came open at Duke Raleigh Hospital. UNC Health suggested he keep checking the website for available appointments, which he did every 15 minutes or so each day, only to find openings too far from his house.
Tharp, 78, a retired computer science professor at N.C. State University, called it “appointment roulette.”
“You’re hoping that you get a winner, that you can actually get an appointment,” he said. “It’s like playing a slot machine continually, trying to hit a jackpot.”
North Carolina made the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines available to the general public for the first time this month, starting with people at least 75 years old, then expanding to those age 65 and older. Hospitals and health departments statewide have vaccinated more than 22,400 people a day on average in the last two weeks, including front-line health care workers, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.
But many seniors have been put on waiting lists or simply failed to get through, while others were turned away from drive-thru inoculation events when the vaccine ran out. Those involved in the process, from Gov. Roy Cooper on down, have acknowledged that there’s not enough available vaccine to meet demand and have urged patience.
The three McClatchy newspapers in North Carolina asked people to tell us about their experiences with vaccination, and nearly 600 responded. Some said it went well, while others described long, dogged efforts to get registered, sometimes ending in failure.
Compounding the frustration is that hospital systems and county public health departments have different ways of getting people vaccinated.
Many give vaccines by appointment only; others, such as Johnston County, organize mass vaccination events where it’s first-come, first-served. Some will add your name to a waiting list for an appointment; others, such as UNC Health, encourage you to keep checking back to see if something has opened up. Some hospitals require you to be a registered patient, which adds a step to the process.
‘Dumb luck’ a factor in vaccination hunt
Eugenia Fishel of Durham began last Friday by calling Duke Health, where she remained on hold for 90 minutes until she was disconnected. Fishel next tried calling the Durham County Health Department but couldn’t get through. She likened the process to a “cattle call” audition.
“You hear that something’s available, and you stand in line or have to wait on the phone and you don’t really know what’s going on and whether you have a chance and you’re vying with all these people,” she said. “It’s sort of dehumanizing.”
Then Fishel, 70, got lucky. On Saturday, her primary care physician’s office called to say it had unexpectedly received some vaccine the night before and asked if her husband, who is 69 and has diabetes, could come in for a shot that day. A few hours later, the office called again to say it had an extra dose available for her.
“It was just dumb luck that I got one,” she said.
Heidi Donaldson was helping her parents, who are both at least 75 years old, hunt for appointments a couple of weeks ago. That search was proving difficult until a friend told Donaldson that Duke had slots open. When Donaldson called, she spent 50 minutes on hold.
“As long as someone came on at the end and gave me the appointment, I was willing to wait,” Donaldson said.
Someone eventually did come on, and Donaldson drove her parents to the hospital last week for their first dose of vaccine. The process was smooth, and they made appointments for the second shot.
“I got lucky,” Donaldson said. “I feel like if my parents didn’t have me, they would probably still be waiting. Or they would have seen it in the paper a day or two later, and they could have tried to do it themselves.”
Thousands have succeeded in getting vaccine
Many of those who were pleased with their vaccination experience praised the friendliness of the staff and efficiency of the process once they got there. Susan Newell of Orange County was impressed by UNC’s vaccination clinic at the Friday Center in Chapel Hill, which is by appointment only.
“Extremely well organized and efficiently run site,” Newell wrote.
Chris Hoke of Raleigh said he was able to register on the Wake County vaccination website on Tuesday, “easy and quick.” Hoke also likes that Wake is prioritizing vaccinations among people whose health makes them more likely to get very sick from the coronavirus, even though that means he, as a healthy 66-year-old, may have to wait a while.
“I like how Wake will vaccinate people on the list in priority order of risk,” wrote Hoke, the retired general counsel for the state Division of Public Health. “This avoids long lines, pushing and shoving and gaming the system.”
Several people described going to neighboring counties or even farther to find an opening.
After striking out with Duke, UNC and her personal physician, Sandra Paur of Raleigh got out a map to see what counties were close to Wake. Within five minutes of clicking on the Granville Health Center website, Paur, 74, had an appointment in Oxford four days before Wake County even began offering them.
“Not only was the website easy to use, but the whole procedure was easy,” said Paur, a retired math instructor at NCSU. (The Granville website says all available appointments at the medical center are now full.)
Paur wishes the overall process were simpler, with just one place to register. And she wonders about people who are missing out because they don’t have access to computers or other advantages she does.
“The thing is, how many people out there don’t have the resources that I’ve got?” she said. “They may not have the time, they may not have the energy and they may not have the devices.”
But even those with an edge have no guarantees, as Dr. Sandi Botstein Glick, a retired physician, learned. Glick, 66, tried for two days to get an appointment without success.
“Fortunately, I’m mobile, I’m educated, not to mention how much time I had to devote on the phone,” she said. “Clearly those are advantages that I have that so many people don’t.”
Glick started her hunt last Thursday by visiting UNC Health’s vaccination website. With nearby appointments booked, Glick, who lives in Chapel Hill, tried to get spots in Eden and Sanford, but they were taken by the time she clicked.
On Friday, Glick tried Duke Health because she’d received an email saying it had vaccine. After 45 minutes calling for an appointment and four disconnections, she gave up. A similar effort later in the day was equally unsuccessful. Also Friday, Glick’s neighborhood listserv said appointments were available at the Durham County Heath Department, but after being on hold for a while, she gave up again.
Glick also uses a gambling term to describe the process.
“It just seems like kind of a crapshoot,” she said. “That’s ridiculous. That shouldn’t be how our health system operates.”
INFORMATION ON VACCINE DISTRIBUTION IN NC
The state Department of Health and Human Services has a website, covid19.ncdhhs.gov/findyourspot, with a list of vaccination locations by county, with phone numbers and web addresses. You can also call 877-490-6642 with questions, though not to make appointments.
This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 12:52 PM with the headline "‘Kind of a crapshoot:’ Frustrated NC seniors navigate fractured COVID vaccine process."
