Wayne Memorial Hospital Bombarded with Vaccine Calls

(Honesdale, January 28, 2021) … “So many people want the COVID-19 vaccine—we hear you! – but we don’t have any available vaccine supplies or open clinics right now,” said Frederick Jackson, executive director of Wayne Memorial Community Health Centers, which is administering the lion’s share of vaccines to the public.

Wayne Memorial is requesting that the public refrain from phoning the hospital, its medical offices and various hospital departments looking for COVID vaccines or clinics. Hospital spokesperson Lisa Champeau stressed that the numerous calls are interfering in the healthcare of the community, especially within the hospital.  She asked that people please help keep the hospital running smoothly.

“Our staff needs to have the phone lines open both in the hospital and in our affiliated clinics to communicate with other medical professionals for consultations and to get test results inside our Lab, Radiology or elsewhere,” said the Public Relations manager.

“Believe me we are more than sympathetic to the needs of our community!” she added. “We only ask that folks be patient and give us the opportunity to reach them when we have the vaccine and open clinics.”

Wayne Memorial Community Health Centers has launched an online registration platform to be able to contact people when clinics are available again. It can be found by going to www.wmh.org and clicking on Vaccine Registration at the top of the page.  Champeau noted that for people who do not have internet access, if they are unable to have a friend or relative help them, the Centers have been working with the Wayne County Area Agency on Aging, which can put people on a waiting list for a vaccine when supplies are available.

“At the heart of this is that we just don’t know when we’re getting more vaccine and how much,” said Jackson. “If we could schedule appointments with that knowledge we would be in much better shape.”

Jackson said another indicator of the need in the community is the hospital’s website usage —  3,500 views on Monday of this week,18,000 on Wednesday, and more than 10,500 as of this afternoon.

Champeau and others at Wayne Memorial have already helped many people get through some of the perceived snags in the registration system.

“We really do want to help people as much as we can.”

Both the state and Wayne Memorial are following a phased rollout and currently remain in the 1A phase. Only people in that phase are eligible for a vaccine, but it’s a large population. For details, visit the Pennsylvania Department of Health coronavirus vaccine page.