SACRAMENTO, Calif — Confusion still lingers for many people after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement that people over the age of 65 would be able to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. At the center of it, people want to know which counties and healthcare providers are actually offering the vaccine and how appointments can be made.
“It’s just that sense of what do I do? And it’s hard to find online, you know. I Googled everything,” said Cheryl Watson, of Sacramento.
Watson is a Kaiser Permanente member and said she ended up reaching out to friends on Facebook to help her get an appointment for her first vaccine.
“I did get through in less than two hours, and I did get an appointment,” she said.
Although Watson is scheduled to get her first shot on Friday, she is one of many people over 65 wondering why the process is so difficult.
According to statements from Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health, and Mercy Medical, they are still in the process of vaccinating community healthcare workers and people age 75 and older, and they also don’t have the supply of vaccines to answer the demand.
“The recent expansion of eligibility by the state to include individuals over 65 years old has challenged the entire health system, including Kaiser Permanente,” Kaiser said, in part, to ABC10.
Kaiser said they’ve increased staff in their call center and, this week, they will add an option to allow eligible members to self-schedule a vaccination appointment, based on vaccine supplies. They also said they’d be reaching out to vaccination-eligible members with more information on what to expect.
Sutter Health said they’ll be able to broaden eligibility and notify patients as vaccine supply and appointment capacity expands. Eligible patients can schedule an appointment either by phone or online. A full statement is available HERE.
While Mercy medical group continues to reach out to patients over 75, the hospital said patients should not call to try and schedule an appointment.
All of these providers have recommended that their patients go to their websites for more information.
While Watson is one of the lucky ones in the over 65 group who has been able to make an appointment, she said that she’s concerned about the break in communication between agencies.
“When you have that break, that sense of, ‘Who do I trust? Where do I go?’ It hurts the program, and that scares me because I want everyone to get vaccinated,” she said.
For full statements from Mercy Medical and Kaiser, see below.
Mercy Medical Group
We started pilot vaccination clinics for Mercy Medical Group (MMG) patients 75 and over this past week, focusing on those with medical conditions putting them at high risk for COVID complications. We are proactively reaching out to our MMG patients in this category. Patients should not call to attempt to schedule an appointment. We are scaling up as fast as possible, to include those 65 and over.
For additional information on COVID-19 vaccines and the vaccine approval process, we recommend reviewing the FAQs on the CDC website and FDA website. Patients should monitor the Mercy Medical Group website for updated information here.
We do expect to receive more doses of the vaccine every week, so the number of people who can get the vaccine will increase exponentially very quickly. Two of the biggest challenges has been not knowing how many doses we’re receiving each week which can make planning challenging and secondly, efficiently and effectively running vaccine clinics during a time when our employees and physicians are already incredibly busy. The clinics continue to be manned by volunteer staff. Luckily, we have a dedicated workforce that have continued to step up to ensure we can get this done and therefore better protect our staff, patients and our community for contracting COVID-19.
Kaiser Permanente
COVID-19 vaccine supply is limited and unpredictable. The recent expansion of eligibility by the state to include individuals over 65 years old has challenged the entire health system including Kaiser Permanente.
It is important to know that providers are informed of their vaccine deliveries on a weekly basis and at this time, we are awaiting additional vaccine delivery. The quantities vary each week and therefore we can only schedule appointments for one week at a time. And we are receiving a small supply of vaccine in comparison to our membership.
For context, we have about 1.4 million Kaiser Permanente members in California who are 65 or older. We have received a weekly average of about 20,000 first-and-second doses (40,000 single doses) since early December. Until supply increases, it will take several months to provide the two doses needed to that 65-and-older population alone. We have been vaccinating health care workers and are continuing to administer vaccine to the state’s earlier priority groups, and accounting for second doses on hand, this is using nearly all of our current weekly allocation of vaccine.
As a result, most individuals will not be able to schedule a vaccine appointment at this time. Our phone and online appointment systems have been overloaded with requests for appointments, but the problem is we do not have enough vaccine supply on hand to meet even a fraction of this demand. We received over 90,000 calls to our vaccine hotline last Thursday, up from 38,000 on Tuesday. This is in addition to calls to clinical and health plan contact centers.
We sincerely apologize to our members who have encountered long wait times when calling for a vaccination appointment and understand the frustration this causes. We are grateful for everyone’s patience and are taking action to alleviate the situation as we work on more ways to increase access to vaccinations as supply allows:
- We have increased staff in our call center, which already operates 24 hours a day.
- To avoid long hold times and to be able to meet the other medical care needs of our members, who are using the same phone and online tools, we are advising callers up front if there are no available vaccine appointments.
- This week we will add an option to allow eligible members to self-schedule a vaccination appointment, based on vaccine supplies.
- We are reaching out to vaccination-eligible members with more information on what to expect, and will update the kp.org/covidvaccine website as new information becomes available.
- We are working with the state and counties to create mass vaccine locations and reach those most vulnerable in our communities. But we need more vaccine before these can open.
As production ramps by manufacturers, we anticipate large deliveries over the coming weeks. Kaiser Permanente is committed to getting our supplies of COVID-19 vaccine to our members and communities as soon as possible and to communicate frequently about the status of vaccine and appointment availability. In addition to the expanded populations outlined by yesterday’s State guidance, we are continuing to vaccinate those in Phase 1A, which includes health care workers. As supplies increase, we will vaccinate more people.
At the same time, the prevalence of COVID-19 remains high in our communities and it is essential that everyone continue to protect themselves and others by using masks, hand washing, avoiding gatherings, and social distancing.
