LEWISTON — While the state has launched a preregistration website allowing residents to get in line for a COVID-19 vaccine, preregistration is not being offered for the Auburn Mall mass vaccination clinic, a Central Maine Healthcare official said Wednesday.
“Central Maine Healthcare isn’t doing preregistration at this time,” said Amy Lee, vice president of operations and chief operating officer of Central Maine Medical Group.
“We currently do not have plans to implement preregistration, but would be open to the possibility if we determined it would enhance the user experience and the efficiency of the process,” Lee said in an email.
Central Maine Healthcare offers appointments when it has adequate vaccine supply from the state. Unlike preregistration, those appointments offer a person a specific day and time for receiving the vaccine.
For information about appointments through CMH, go to cmhc.org or call CMH’s COVID vaccine call center line: 207-520-2917.
Officials at CMHC, which is providing vaccines at the Auburn Mall and hospitals in Rumford and Bridgton, will review the state preregistration site “to determine whether it would enhance the experience of Maine residents using our platform.”
One challenge posed by preregistration, according to some health care providers, is that people preregister in multiple places and then when contacted for an actual appointment, can’t be reached or have already received their vaccine elsewhere. The result can be reduced efficiency and wasted time and staff at vaccine clinics.
On Tuesday, when the state opened eligibility to Mainers ages 50 and up, Dr. Nirav Shan, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control, said the state’s preregistration site is not for every vaccine clinic in Maine, but for clinics “dissatisfied with their own existing scheduling platform.”
The statewide site, vaccinateme.maine.org, is to help new or smaller clinics that lack online booking. For instance Maine Health, based in Portland, and Northern Lights Health, based in Bangor, will continue to use their own online preregistrations.
The state site does not allow someone to book an appointment, it takes information from individuals and will let them know when and how they’ll be able to get an appointment.
Residents of any Maine county can preregister using the website, including those not yet eligible for a vaccine, Robert Long of the Maine CDC said Wednesday in an email. On April 16 eligibility expands to all Mainers over the age of 16.
Those who preregister will be contacted when they are age eligible and will receive information on scheduling a vaccine appointment.
More vaccines have been available in Cumberland and Penobscot counties than Androscoggin. The percentage of population with their first vaccine shot on March 23 was 28% statewide and 21.5% for Androscoggin County. Oxford and Franklin counties first shot percentages were both 23.6 as of March 23.
“As has been the case since the first doses arrived in Maine, residents can be vaccinated anywhere in the state; they are not limited to vaccinations in the county where they reside,” Long said.
The state preregistration website does not allow someone to book an appointment; it takes information from individuals and will let them know when and how they’ll be able to get an appointment.
In its second week of operation this week, the Auburn Mall had enough supply from the state to run the clinic for three days. Next week, if it receives enough vaccine, officials plan to offer the clinic four days. All vaccines are by appointment only.
St. Mary’s Regional Health Care is working with CMHC at the Auburn Mall and has suspended its vaccine clinics at the hospital to focus on community outreach. Staff members are working with Androscoggin Home Health and the Auburn Fire Department to provide vaccines to the housebound and marginalized populations.
A St. Mary’s affiliate, the B Street Clinic in downtown Lewiston, is providing vaccines on weekends. Workers are reaching out to neighborhood residents through various community organizations and are doing pre-registration on the Community Clinical Associates website at www.communityclinicalservices.com/covid-19-vaccines.
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