In mid-April, HASA, the non-profit, community HIE for North, South and West Texas, worked with the City of San Antonio to launch a COVID-19 vaccine waitlist for Texas residents over 65 year of age without reliable access to Internet services.

Texas residents who meet specific enrollment criteria have the opportunity to place themselves on a waitlist for a vaccine via 311 phone calls.  Overall, the waitlist serves as a clearinghouse for patients, allowing vaccine providers to query and acquire the necessary information to acquire patients for vaccine services.

University Health, UT Health San Antonio, Metro Health, and WellMed are some of the current providers participating in this pilot waitlist program.

Making data entry simple, HASA has created and is hosting the intake form that 311 utilizes for populating the vaccine waitlist.  The HIE stores and protects the resulting database. They are also creating a technology that allows vaccine providers to query the waitlist and securely receive the data to begin the process of scheduling appointments.

Since its launch on April 14th, 4,363 people signed up for the vaccine waitlist – with the vast majority of the users actually being under the age of 65. According to this recent San Antonio Report article, this effort may be expanded to all populations in the area.

As HASA is already connected with a significant number of providers in the local community, the HIE is an ideal partner to support their local community and the City of San Antonio with this project. 

With connections to the eHealth Exchange – the oldest and largest nationwide health information network connecting the public and private sectors – HASA is uniquely qualified and well positioned to comfortably provide similar services to municipalities and vaccine providers statewide.

This effort is a prime example of how HIEs, and the power of health data exchange, can be used in innovative ways to advance overall vaccine distribution efforts, which is vital element in finally living in a post-pandemic world.

RosettaHealth can assist with any health information challenges you might have, book a free consultation with one of our interoperability experts.