Nurse Heidi Gibbons contacted Action News after failing to receive confirmation that the registration forms she filled out for her 94-year-old mother had been accepted.
She is left wondering if her mother is in line to get the shots. Her mother lives in an independent housing unit, which is not considered a nursing home in Bucks County, but also maintains a residence in Philadelphia.
“When you apply on these websites, you don’t get any confirmation. So it’s like putting her name in cyberspace and I really don’t know if she’s technically on a waiting list anywhere,” Gibbons said.
Gibbons is not alone. Officials urge people to apply through the county websites where they live and work, which includes enrolling in multiple counties if you live in one and work in another.
SEE: 6 questions answered with the COVID vaccine
If the county where you live and work does not have this option, register through the Pennsylvania Department of Health website.
With the new extension of eligibility, there are now 3.5 million pensioners who are eligible, but there are simply not enough vaccines yet.
The Philadelphia Department of Health operates separately from the state and receives its own vaccine allocation directly from the CDC.
Currently, they only have an “interest form”, but urge people to sign up. Health officials plan to use it as a starting point once there are more vaccines.
Philadelphia operates in Phase 1B. The Commonwealth is still operating in phase 1A.
The frustrations are not limited to enrollment, but also to the way people in each category are checked.
Because health care workers are included in such a broad spectrum, only health care workers in major health systems are easily verified.
Someone who claims to be a home nurse trusts a system of honor.
The same is true for underlying conditions, except for cancer patients or organ donors. The health department has an easier time contacting their doctors.
“To a large extent, we can’t check most people who come,” said James Garrow, a spokesman for the Philadelphia Department of Health. “We want to make the vaccine available to as many people as possible, but at the same time we don’t have enough to reach everyone.”
“Rather than going through and checking the documentation and having to go through the databases, we think about people’s words,” Garrow added. “If someone who is not in one of these priority groups takes it from someone who has cancer or who has just had an organ transplant. It is not ideal. We wish we could do this in a way that I don’t rely on people’s goodwill. “
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