COLUMBUS, Ohio — It took 130 phone calls, 90 minutes on hold, and some convincing of her hesitant grandmother, but Megan Dembski’s persistence repeatedly dialing the health department paid off on Monday, when she drove Mary Summers, 87, to become one of the first seniors in Ohio to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Summers, a lifelong Ohio resident, said she had not been longing for this day to come. “I knew I had to do it, but I wasn’t looking forward to it,” she said. “Some people have said the vaccine is too new, they don’t want to take it, and I was concerned maybe they were right. I want to be safe.”
She was persuaded by the loving encouragement of her granddaughter, who is a pharmacist in Columbus. For Dembski, who says she supports vaccines for public health, it was important that Summers get the shot. She spent time with her grandmother talking it through and explaining how the vaccine was thoroughly tested, even though the process moved at a record speed.
“She was really open to me talking with her about it, encouraging her to get the vaccine — that it’s safe, that it’s researched,” Dembski said.
She said it seems like there could be a better system for registering eligible seniors.
“For the 1B classification, for the 80 and up, or even 65 and up, it can be really challenging and difficult. It was lucky that I was able to help my grandma,” she said. “I think there could have been a better way… more people answering phones or online portals or something.”
They are not along in experiencing frustration with the vaccine registration process in Ohio. A geriatric doctor who has been helping his numerous elderly patients navigate the vaccine process described a chaotic system for seniors, and their loved ones who are helping them, as everyone rushes at once to book the limited number of appointments. On behalf of patients, he tried making appointments with Discount Drug Mart, Giant Eagle, and Marc’s pharmacy — three of the providers with the most locations in Ohio — he said, requesting he not be identified due to media policies at his hospital.
“Discount Drug Mart, power to them, they at least took the contact information and said they would contact the person when they were eligible,” he said. “The others you have to keep going back and checking. Poor seniors are going to wake up at 6 a.m. every day, to try and refresh the screen multiple times to see if they can get in and it’ll be an incredibly frustrating experience.”
With months of time to prepare, the lack of a better system is head-scratching, he said, adding that the current free-for-all of a system could lead to inequitable health outcomes.
“We have already seen that the people who died the most are less likely to get vaccinated than the people who are the haves. This vaccination system has perpetuated the divide even further,” he said.
Gov. Mike DeWine instructed vaccine providers in Ohio to begin phase “1B” on Monday, starting with seniors 80 and older. Providers were told they had until Sunday to wrap up the first shots for “1A,” which included health care workers and adult congregate care residents and staff.
In Columbus, the vaccine supply was insufficient for that to be realistic, Health Commissioner Dr. Mysheika Roberts said last week. Columbus Public Health began “1B” residents on Monday, and is now vaccinating residents in phase “1B” and phase “1A” simultaneously. Franklin County officials said they would have to do the same.
Ohio is not using a centralized scheduling system for appointments.
When the state released a database on Thursday with contact information for all of the vaccine providers, thousands of Ohioans began dialing and systems were overwhelmed by the mad dash.
With only about 100,000 vaccine doses expected this week and 420,000 seniors in the eligible age group, providers quickly ran out of availablity. After making appointments available at 9 a.m. Thursday, a 10:45 a.m. press release from the Dayton & Montgomery County Health Department later that morning said all of its time slots had been booked.
Some critics wonder why the state did not create a single online portal for registration. DeWine said the Ohio went with a decentralized scheduling, similar to how other types of medical appointments are made.
“We leave this up to, as we do in most things in life, leave it up to a local pharmacy to do the scheduling,” DeWine said during a news conference last week. “We’re going to see how this works the first week. We’re going to see what problems we have.”
Ohio State’ mass vaccination site at the Schottenstein Center can process up to 3,200 immunizations per day.
Roberts said Franklin County has 72 COVID-19 vaccine sites for Phase “1B,” including four hospitals, the city and county health departments, and pharmacies. Many of the locations are Kroger and Giant Eagle pharmacies, each of which is receiving 100 doses, she said. Columbus Public Health was expecting 600 doses this week.
“Be patient with us all as we roll this process out,” Roberts said. “It’s a work in progress.”
The start of the second phase of vaccinations brings a first look at many of Ohio’s 700 vaccination sites. The state’s approach to Phase “1B” includes a mix of large distribution sites as well as neighborhood locations that will be more accessible for some residents. DeWine said President-elect Joe Biden wants the states to go big with mass vaccination sites, a strategy that he says he likes, too.
Ohio State Wexner Medical Center will open one such site Tuesday morning, administering the first shot to a 100-year-old retired Wexner employee. Hospital officials said they can immunize 3,200 people per day at the university’s Schottenstein Center, a multi-use athletic facility. But with how the vaccine supply has looked so far, it might take a while to get to that pace.
Crystal Tubbs, associate director of pharmacy at Wexner, said there could be limited operations and limited appointments in the coming weeks at the site due to the supply level.
The proposition for the mass vaccination sites is simple. As state officials face more pressure to accelerate vaccine administration, they could lose patience with smaller providers that are not moving quickly enough. Sites with more resources hope the state will turn to them to speed it up.
“We have the capability at Ohio State to really vaccinate a lot of folks. And so it’s a message I would love for those at the state to hear that the more vaccine we get, the more people we can vaccinate, so send it our way for sure,” Tubbs said.
The site will be open six days per week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., the goal being to offer flexibility for those who may have unique schedules.
Ohioans 75 and older are expected to become eligible to make appointments for the week of Jan. 25, followed by the 70+ and 65+ age groups the following two weeks, respectively. But with providers still not finished with “1A,” and with inadequate supply to immunize all seniors 80+ for potentially several weeks, it remains unclear when people in those age groups could realistically expect to get an appointment.
“If we have a very rapid and high percentage of our folks greater than 80 take the vaccine, I think it does become questionable a bit in terms of how quickly we can vaccinate those next groups,” Tubbs said.
The process may not seamless, but Summers says once she had an appointment, it was easy. Not usually a fan of needles, she says this one was painless, and as she waited on-site in the parking lot in case of any side effects, she said she felt just fine. Now that it is over with, she says she feels privileged to be one of the first.
“Being confined to home has been hard. So if this protects me and anybody around me, then I feel like I’ve got more free motion,” she said. “Some of my children haven’t come around. I’ve got grandkids and great grandkids that haven’t been around. It’ll be nice to have visitors.”
