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Early Monday morning, Philip Zwick said he was standing outside the Morris County coronavirus vaccine mega-site in Rockaway in a line with dozens of people.
The 79-year-old said he was waiting for his contact details to be added to a list that would be used in the event the site had no-show appointments that day, and that there were doses remaining . He left his name with an officer at the gate, but it was in vain. He was never contacted for a last minute shooting.
“People are lined up, old people in wheelchairs, trying to get this stuff because the state system isn’t working,” he said. “I decided we weren’t going to do this anymore. We’re not going to sit around in the morning waiting.
The former Sears store mega-site at Rockaway Townsquare Mall is one of the sites in New Jersey that has a waiting list in case people with scheduled appointments don’t show up. But officials say the success of using this system to get vaccinated is incredibly rare, very few people have gotten vaccinated this way.
Demand for the vaccines has far exceeded supply in New Jersey, where officials have said about 4 million people are eligible for the vaccine while the state receives about 130,000 doses per week for the next three weeks of the year. federal government.
The County and Atlantic Health System, which together run the Rockaway site, said officers at the building’s door had taken names of people asking to be considered for remaining doses, but those names are only kept for that day.
They strongly discourage people from coming to the walk-in site and expecting a remaining dose.
Sources at the site said 1,000 people had applied to be placed on a waiting list this week, but only one or two people received the vaccine by this method.
“Because we are committed to not wasting any vaccine, on the rare occasion when, for example, someone does not show up for their appointment, the agents at our doors have taken names of people asking to be considered for any remaining vaccine that day. Only the names of persons eligible for vaccination are taken and kept only for this day. Rarely should anyone who has received a vaccination by these means and unplanned people go to the vaccination center while waiting to be vaccinated, ”the county and Atlantic health system said in a joint statement.
The state has encouraged sites to use leftover doses rather than throwing them away if there are supplies at the end of the day.
“The sites are responsible for administering any remaining expected doses to other members of the community rather than throwing the vaccine away,” New Jersey Department of Health spokesperson Donna Leusner said this month. . “Most sites have a waiting list in the next expected category to make sure nothing is thrown away.”
Michael Maron, CEO of Holy Name Medical Center, said that in the event that there were doses remaining at the end of the day, the hospital contacted people on a Teaneck list of about 200 seniors who called the canton because they need an appointment. The hospital operates a vaccination site at the Richard Rodda Community Center in Teaneck.
This is not common, he said, as almost everyone with a programmed plan shows up. There were a few days when around six vaccines were still available and they turned to the township list, he said. They planned to vaccinate 2,800 on Thursday, he said.
“We didn’t waste a single dose… and it’s all around the effectiveness of the planning,” Maron said. “Our (planning) system is very dependent on the computer and SMS … Some of the seniors, more than I thought, don’t have any either so they call the city … The city knows who they are and they have them on the list. “
He said the process was going to be different next week.
A new registration form will be available on the hospital’s website which will include a question asking if the person filling out the form is able to make it to the site if there is a last minute opening.
“These people that we could quickly sort through towards the end of the day and call them, but they’d all be on the same master record list,” Maron said.
The Moorestown Mall mega-site in Burlington County, operated by Virtua Health System, uses a similar system.
Dr Reginald Blaber, executive vice president and clinical director of Virtua, said they were trying to avoid incidents seen in other states, such as Florida, where thousands of doses were not used after the thawing.
“Right now we have a list of first responders, like police, firefighters, EMS, that we use for those extra doses. But what we did on our website … is one of the questions you’ll answer is, are you available to come within 15 minutes if we were to call you at the end of the day with the first one? dose, ”Blaber says. “We have seen what has happened in other states and we are trying to avoid that. We try to learn from these lessons. “
Daniel Moise, a spokesperson for Virtua, was unsure how many people were on the waiting list and how many had been vaccinated this way, but he guessed it was only a handful.
However, many places do not yet have waiting lists available and do not allow walk-in tours.
The Bergen County mega-site of the Meadowlands Racing and Entertainment Complex does not accept walk-in tours and remaining doses are for team members only, said Mary Jo Layton, spokesperson for Hackensack Meridian Health , who manages the site.
“If there is vaccine left over because people don’t show up after making an appointment, we have members of our team on standby who have not yet received the vaccine who will take those doses. No dose is ever wasted, ”she says.
In Ocean County, the health department also does not have a list of pending appointments.
Brian Lippai, the spokesperson for the health department, said it was because if someone misses an appointment, it becomes available again in the department’s scheduling system and is quickly filled.
He encourages people to check the county health department’s website several times a day in case there’s an unexpected no-show, and a window opens up.
“OCHD doesn’t have a problem getting closer to closing time and suddenly realizes we’ve had 10 or 15 no-shows. We closely monitor our schedule and appointments throughout the day. If someone misses an appointment, it becomes available again in our scheduling system, ”he says. “We schedule our appointments very tightly, so if there is a cancellation – even later in the day – it will be available at our clinic site and will usually be booked within minutes.
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Avalon Zoppo can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo.
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