Beaufort hospital cancels 3,500 coronavirus vaccine appointments. Here’s why
This post has been updated to reflect Beaufort Memorial Hospital’s current vaccine clinic schedule.
Beaufort Memorial Hospital has canceled roughly 3,500 coronavirus vaccinations as it transitions to a new scheduling and appointment process, according to an email from the medical center.
Pending appointments originally scheduled in the federal Vaccine Administration Management System, or VAMS, were canceled.
People who were affected by the VAMS cancellations will be added to the hospital’s current wait list, according to the email from the medical center. VAMS has timestamps to show when local patients originally signed up for their future appointments. Beaufort Memorial Hospital will use those timestamps to determine the order of new appointments. (The existing wait list is already based on timestamps, as opposed to appointment dates.)
“We found that as we worked through our waitlist and/or as people who were scheduled in VAMS received vaccines from another provider, appointment slots would open up in VAMS and essentially allow others to ‘jump the line,’” spokesperson Courtney McDermott wrote in a statement Wednesday.
The hospital’s vaccine clinic is now currently operating five days a week, McDermott said Thursday.
Beaufort Memorial Hospital will make sure it honors second dose appointments for those who got their first shots at the medical center, according to the Monday email.
Roughly 10,000 Phase 1a-eligible people as of Wednesday were already on the hospital’s wait list, McDermott wrote.
The hospital has suspended scheduling via VAMS and is simply working through its wait list week to week. People can add their name to that list here: https://www.bmhsc.org/services/immediate-care-options/covid-19-info-resources/vaccine-information/
Residents can also be placed on the waitlist by calling 843-522-7219 or emailing vaccine@bmhsc.org.
The latest cancellations come a few days before Phase 1b is set to begin in South Carolina.
Phase 1b greatly expands the number of people eligible to get vaccinated around Beaufort and Jasper counties. An estimated 2.7 million residents statewide will qualify for inoculations beginning Monday, the Governor’s Office and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control announced Tuesday.
The state’s first allocation of roughly 41,100 doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was set to arrive this week, bolstering DHEC’s inoculation campaign.
The nation’s limited vaccine supply, though, is still the biggest challenge facing S.C. vaccine providers, even as “demand in many places seems to be waning,” said Nick Davidson, senior deputy for public health, during a briefing with reporters Wednesday.
“We certainly understand the frustrations that people experienced with the limitations in supply from some of the weather conditions, for example,” added Dr. Linda Bell, the state’s top epidemiologist. “We are asking providers to not give priority to others before they have vaccinated those whose appointments were delayed, making sure as best possible that they can reach those in Phase 1a first, because there was good reason for them to be prioritized.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2021 at 4:40 AM.
