With more COVID-19 vaccine appointments opening up around Alaska every day, some providers say they are facing a recurring problem: appointment no-show.
“It’s been a significant problem over the last week, if not longer,” said Heather Harris, director of the Anchorage Health Department.
In the case: More than 200 people never showed up for their designated appointments at the Anchorage School District Vaccine Clinic on Wednesday, School District spokeswoman Lisa Miller said.
While ASD and other clinic providers have so far been largely adapted to last-minute changes in vaccine use, health officials say there is little pressure on no-show providers, and they are encouraging Alaska to cancel appointments in advance if they do not. If so, there won’t be.
“I think the great thing is that we’re not spending on vaccines,” Kelsey Pistotnik, program manager with the Alaska Immunization Program, said during a call with the media on Thursday. “When it expects a certain number of days and it happens a lot less, it’s a big burden on the providers.”
“Soursalt and backflips need to be done to ensure no vaccine is wasted in clinics,” Harris said.
The point seems to be that people are making visits for available slots as soon as possible – which will probably be weeks away. But since appointments are added regularly to the site, some may check in later, book earlier or more convenient slots, and then forget to cancel the old one, said Tessa Walker Linderman, co-lead of the Alaska Vaccine Task Force.
“We definitely have ‘appointment shopping’, and I can get it – we all want to get vaccinated sooner rather than later.” “But we’re still trying to find that sweet spot so it really works from the provider’s side.” As well as the patient side.
“This is definitely a new problem,” Pistotnick said.
Alaska will open the first vaccination appointment in the country this month for those aged 16 or over, who live or work in the state, without any other eligibility restrictions, thanks to the large number of vaccine appointments filed at the time.
Public health officials said this week that demand for vaccines is generally higher after Alaska removed eligibility requirements, with the overall saturation of appointments in the state – especially in Anchorage – making it easier for people to choose between vaccine appointment slots. Sign up for
“We’ve moved from a place where you have to schedule appointments that have a lot of options for several weeks now,” Harris said.
Many clinic providers say they have been able to adapt to missed visits. At the ASD clinic, the health team has changed how many vaccines they pull out of the storage freezer each day.
“What we’re doing is to ensure zero waste, if there are 1 thousand registered in the morning, we’ll pull 500 doses out of the freezer,” Miller, the school’s district spokesman, said. He added that no vaccine has been vaccinated yet.
A woman walks past the line of vaccination stations at the Anchorage School District Education Center on February 11, 2021. (Emily Messner / ADN)
The Pfizer vaccine can be kept in the freezer for about two weeks and then in the refrigerator for about five days, he said. Once the vials are punctured, it only lasts six hours.
So, “we’re not pulling out of ultra-cold storage until we have completely,” he said.
Not every clinic has the same problem. Matt-Sue Public Health Nurse, Renલો Dillo, said Thursday that only 10% of campers in the region have missed out on recruitment.
Vaccination clinics in Juneau have seen both no-shows and cancellations, said Robert Bairr, chief of the planning section at the Center for Emergency Operations in Juneau. But that hasn’t become an issue yet, he said.
Usually people who cancel or don’t show up have either been vaccinated somewhere in advance, or have a travel issue that affects their ability to get another dose.
In half-day clinics, which vaccinate about 400 people, they see about 10 no-shows. And on full days, when about 1,000 people can get vaccinated, they watch as many as 30 no-shows, he said.
“It’s a manageable number for us. We can work with it.
Junau Clinics has a public waitlist, which means they have been able to ask people for shots and prepare them for open appointments, Barry said.
But that could change soon, as the supply of vaccines increases and the demand for people on the waitlist to get vaccinated seems to slow down.
“I think maybe in April – certainly in May – we’ll start to see supply and demand alike, and then it’ll be harder for us to cope,” Barry said.
Clint Brooks, event commander of the Unified Command of Fairbanks North Star Borough, has a show-rate of about 7% for the large vaccine clinics held at Fairbanks’ Carlson Center.
But despite the no-show, Brooks said filling the slot is not a problem. They are planning to keep the clinic listed in the open online as well as keeping a standby list by overbooking the appointments around the line.
Harris, with Anchorage Health Department, said an open vaccination clinic on Friday was an attempt to check whether eliminating the need to schedule an appointment would make vaccination easier for some people.
The Anchorage School District team is reaching out to those who missed their vaccine appointment and are giving them a chance to re-book.
Miller said that despite very little vaccine being wasted, the clinic asks Alaska to cancel his appointment in advance instead of just showing up.
“Respect your appointment, and if you can’t make it, cancel so we can trump it,” he said. “It helps in the process.”
