AUSTIN (KXAN) – If you’ve tried to register for a COVID-19 vaccination online in Austin, and you’ve had a painful experience, the City of Austin hears you.
In a memo obtained by KXAN on Thursday, city officials internally acknowledged “frustration within the community” over the city’s vaccine platform used to sign up for immunizations.
“We know the vaccine platform continues to be a frustration within the community just as many other similar systems across the country right now,” said the city’s communications office in a memo sent to city council members Wednesday.
The city issued the memo, which focused primarily on a project to redesign the city’s website, in response to a KXAN investigation of that redesign effort.
KXAN discovered the city had spent millions on a website redesign effort and new “alpha” website that will now be decommissioned. A city spokesperson said the current online vaccination registration would not have been based on the soon-to-be cancelled “alpha” site even if it had stayed in development.
“The pandemic caused an urgent need to stand up a solution immediately, and COA chose a known platform to respond to a very specific need,” a spokesperson said.
The city said its vaccine registration platform is “entirely separate” from the city’s website and “managed by an external vendor,” according to the memo.
To get to the vaccination registration website, a user starts on the city’s website, www.austintexas.gov, then jumps onto a third-party’s platform www.covid19.austintexas.gov operated by Salesforce. The city said it also got consulting assistance form Sense Corp. The vaccine portal is cloud based and hosted in Salesforce’s datacenters, the city said.
The vaccine pre-registration website currently has a disclaimer, front and center, warning users they might experience a technical problem and need to resubmit their information later. The city’s vaccination effort is headed by Austin Public Health. APH is currently following the Texas Department of State Health Services’ guidelines and vaccinating people in the first two phases: 1A — healthcare workers and people in long-term care — and 1B — people over 65 and people over 16 with chronic medical conditions that make them vulnerable to the virus.
In early January, would-be registrants emailed KXAN about getting error messages while trying to use the vaccine website.
At that time, a city spokesperson said, “high simultaneous demand” caused most of the technical issues, and those would be “naturally resolved as people pre-register on a more rolling basis rather than all trying to access the same page at the same time.”
Problems have nevertheless persisted. For example, the case of Andy Rogers, an 80-year-old resident with underlying health conditions who continues to struggle to get his immunization through APH.
As of Thursday, Rogers said he still hasn’t been able to schedule his first shot. He said he registered on APH’s website about three weeks ago. He’s been getting emails indicating appointments are available, but when he tries to log in to schedule one the system won’t accept his information. He can’t log on.
Rogers said he called a number and was connected to a worker at 311 who said they couldn’t access his account directly but would pass his information along to APH for a follow up. “That was several days ago,” Rogers said by phone Thursday.
“I think it is a flaw in the way they set up the site,” Rogers said. “All I know is my story.”
The city said it will be working to improve the vaccine portal’s layout, scheduling functionality and provide text notifications.
“We’re aware that people have tried and been unable to register for a vaccine appointment, due to the overwhelming demand, and we understand that is frustrating,” a city spokesperson said in an email. “That’s why, as part of our continuous improvement effort, the City is working with our partners to make enhancements to the registration site
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