MADISON, Wis. — Multiple local hospital systems have had to reschedule or cancel scheduled appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations.
Mercyhealth in Janesville said Monday that it received zero first dose vaccines for the second week in a row. Although, DHS told News 3 Now that’s not true.
No matter who is telling the truth, the people who are affected the most are the patients who thought they were going to get vaccinated, but instead have their appointments cancelled.
Mercyhealth cancelled almost 500 Rock County patients’ appointments.
“They say how sorry they are, they say how unfortunate it is. But then they end with, ‘Just be patient.’ Well, that only goes so far,” said Jane Doughty.
66-year-old Doughty said she’s had multiple appointments for a vaccination. She had an appointment set up in January near her other home in Door County, but the public health organization there quickly ran out of vaccine and her appointment was cancelled.
She thought her Feb. 20 appointment at UW Health, her primary care provider, would stick, but Monday night she was alerted that it was rescheduled to March 13 because of a lack of supply.
“You’re on this emotional rollercoaster where, you know, I really don’t want to get sick,” said Doughty. “The third time that you’re told you’ve been moved back in the list, it’s hard.”
UW Health has had to reschedule patients because of a lack of supply. Even though the healthcare system has the ability to vaccinate 7,000 patients each week, DHS continues to allocate them only about 2,000 vaccine doses a week.
“DHS is using a blended approach where they’re adding more and more vaccinators. And when you have the same pool of vaccine to distribute, that means that some of the larger systems are not going to get as much,” said Dr. Matt Anderson at UW Health.
DHS said last week more than 600 vaccinators requested 337,821 doses of vaccine and only 70,750 first doses were available. To prioritize and allocate requested vaccine, DHS takes a few things into consideration, including getting supply to underserved populations, and weighing a county’s social vulnerability index and population.
Because of this, UW Health’s allocation will stay pretty consistent. All vaccinations currently scheduled are dependent on supply.
Some patients currently scheduled could find vaccines elsewhere instead. Anderson said staff are trying to educate patients on where that might be and how to navigate this process.
“We’re going to try to provide information to our patients about where those opportunities are, because if they’re not with us, we don’t want them to be scrounging around looking for information,” he said. “Going out and trying to find (vaccine) in one of 15 or 10 or 20 places, or however many it is, is work for people to do and so there’s a lot of emotion that goes with that. And that’s certainly understandable and it’s unfortunate that it’s that way.”
In Doughty’s case, she stayed up and checked her UW Health My Chart account every few hours. She was lucky enough to see a cancellation and get the vaccine Tuesday morning. But she knows not everyone can do that in order to find a vaccine, and they shouldn’t have to.
“There’s people without smart phones, without computers. They’re relying on their kids to try to (find a vaccine), you know, and their kids are working full time. It’s just mind boggling how crazy this whole system is and how inefficient and not aware of what this does to people’s mental health,” said Doughty.
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