How NOT to Schedule Vaccinations
As it turns out, this is not the first time the state's reservation system has experienced problems. According to an article in the Phoenix New Times published on December 31, many people in the smaller and earlier (1A) group had trouble with it. Some Phoenix area health care workers, according to the article, were directed to a vaccination center in Snowflake and some actually made the trip.
The article goes on to describe finger-pointing between the county, state, and hospital systems. There was an array of incompatible computer systems, so the state decided (perhaps wisely) to require that all reservations go through a central state system.
Unfortunately they meant a bespoke reservation system they were developing. According to someone I spoke with who is knowledgeable about the situation, that system was not handed over for use until two days before the 1A registrations started, and had not been properly tested.
In the New Times article, an AzDHS spokesman claimed that "the state's vaccination management system is and has been functioning properly." But this assertion must be based on "alternative facts." The Group 1A people had problems as described above, and these problems were not sufficiently addressed in the two weeks before the Group 1B rollout.
We must ask, as I did in the earlier post, why we are having problems like this after ten months of preparation and planning time. Anyone who knows anything about computer systems could predict there would be significant problems if different systems using different databases were involved.
One also wonders why the make/buy decision for a reservation system was resolved in favor of "make." There are plenty of commercial services out there for making reservations, for example SuperSaaS or even TicketMaster. Providers like this have already developed and tested their software to run on all kinds of browsers and devices.
They run on load-balanced servers that tolerate being inundated with requests. Think of tens of thousands of people trying to buy Rolling Stones, or BTS, or Comic Con, or NFL playoff tickets the very second sales start. Those companies know how to handle surges. If I were king, I would hire one of those outfits to run my reservation system.
While the state could have done a lot letter, I apportion most of the blame here to the Trump administration. They could have and should have anticipated these problems and provided resources.
For example, they could have hired (or compelled if necessary, via the Defense Production Act) the companies mentioned above to clone and customize their systems, to be offered to the states to register vaccine recipients. Why did the ironically-named Project Warp Speed not take this step?
Essentially, Project Warp Speed brought vaccine and threw it "over-the-wall" to state authorities. They were left to fend for themselves while also dealing with all the other tasks thrown over-the-wall to them, like testing, PPE/equipment procurement, care management, mitigation measures...
Update, 5:45 p.m.
I discovered I am in an eligible group, so I actually used the site. It was not exhibiting any of the problems mentioned above. I managed to get an account and got to the point of trying to schedule an appointment without any issues. But at the point where I was to select a date and timeslot, there were problems.
There is a page where you select a date and administration center. You click next and it takes you to a page where you select a timeslot. You click the link for that and a dialog box pops up that showing you available slots. If you're lucky and there is a slot you can claim it, but if not you have to go back and start over. So you select a new date/location, and click next and select a slot, and get a new dialog. I repeated this tedious process for every day between today and January 28, for three sites and there were no slots available. I never managed to reserve a slot.
A few observations:
- It would be much better if the system offered a list of days/slots/locations that are available, or said no slots available, check back on this date. I don't get the point of making users click through dates and slot selection dialogs over and over. This can't help with server load, and might be a main reason the servers crashed on Monday.
- Also given the way the system works it could not have directed healthcare workers to Snowflake, as claimed in the New Times story. The system (unfortunately) doesn't direct you anywhere. I think what happened is that the healthcare workers couldn't find local slots so they increased the search radius for locations, then were able to find slots in Snowflake.
- I understand that slots available are based on vaccine shipments. I suspect there are no slots anywhere after a week or two out because they don't know how much vaccine they will have. It would be better if the current system didn't let you search for slots that don't exist anywhere, but instead told you to check back after some date when new shipments are expected.
- There were things about the system I was able to figure out because I use computers and websites like this a lot (and have even designed some). It's not going to be so easy for people who don't have that experience. Hopefully they will get it smoothed out before the true mass vaccinations start.
Update 1/15/21
Since I couldn't score a timeslot yesterday, I went back into the system today to see if any had opened up. I had to enter almost all my information again, despite the fact that I entered it yesterday and I have an account on this system. It's becoming pretty clear that whoever designed this assumed everything would go right on the first try, including the first check for timeslots.
Just for fun, at the slot selection step I entered a date in mid-February. It told me there were no slots available at any location. Then why is it allowing me to search for slots today when none are available?
Still no appointment. Watch this space for updates.
Update 1/17/21
I spoke to a friend who lives in Indiana. In their reservation system, you log in, put in location info, and click a link for "next available appointment." Only once you accept that do they collect all of your contact and insurance info. That's a very sensible way to design such a system. I wish we had it here.
