DENVER — All was running smoothly at an SCL Health mass vaccination site at the National Western Complex this weekend until the e-mail went out.
Then the mad dash started.
Near the end of an event aimed at vaccinating 5,000 people in vulnerable populations, SCL Health notified several of its partners about leftover vaccine doses from no-shows at the event.
“We reached out to our community partners with a very targeted ask of we have additional vaccine can you go to your list of folks to get people here,” Megan Mahncke, senior vice president for external relations for SCL Health, said.
One of those partners, Jeffco Public Schools, sent a mass e-mail, robocall and text message to all of its 14,000 employees informing them that 200 doses were available at the event if they could make it to Denver in an hour.
One hour later, the district sent a follow-up e-mail informing staff that the building was at capacity.
Outside the event, traffic gridlocked, school staffers ran from their vehicles and sprinted through parking lots to get inside the building for a chance at one of those shots.
Jeffco Public Schools apologized to employees inconvenienced by the issue in a lengthy e-mail the next day, explaining that it made the decision to e-mail the entire staff in an effort to ensure the process was fair.
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Days before this event, educators and staff inside Jeffco received an e-mail from the district telling them that due to a lack of supply of vaccine and a large population of people 70 and over in Jefferson County, it would take a while for the district to begin setting up clinics for teachers. They were encouraged to sign up for vaccine lists on their own.
SCL Health said it will now ask partners to be sure they have a priority list before alerting employees in an effort to avoid the rush on Saturday.
“You really need to have a targeted prioritization list and so that means taking the list of folks who are interested in getting the vaccine – aligning it with the state guidelines,” Mahncke said. “And then really having a structured communication plan of how do you reach out to those that the vaccine is now available to.”
Jeffco Schools said Sunday that the district would create a priority list to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
SCL Health was unable to provide an exact number of vaccines leftover from no-shows, citing changing conditions associated with mass vaccination clinics. Mahncke said the health system tried to give people leeway if they were late for a shot.
“You have a constant flux of who shows up, who shows up early, who shows up late, who doesn’t show up,” Mahncke said. “Every 30 minutes you have a difference of how much vaccine do we have to use than we did the 30 minutes prior.”
She said throughout the day, as people didn’t show up for appointments, the hospital system contacted people 70 and over in their system who were on a waiting list. When that list was exhausted, they turned to other partners, including school districts.
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