OK… this is par for the course. On February 1, I posted The 62nd Day to celebrate posting on this blog 62 days in a row. In that piece, I wondered if I could keep that pace up for a third month. Well, I posted again on February 2nd and thought I was on the way.
Then, I skipped yesterday.
Why?
Well, that is a bit of story and subject of today’s post.
I have been blogging before turning in each day. Last night I began an hour and a half later than normal. I began to type and shortly got very tired and was not really pleased with the quality of what I was writing. I pushed forth and felt even more tired and, as I had an early get-up today, I decided to forego writing and hit the sack.
Both the late start and being overly tired came were because of Covid-19 vaccine. No, not because I had my first shot and had any issues. It was because of spending an hour and a half trying to schedule myself for that first shot.
A neighbor emailed earlier and told that she enrolled in Advocate Health’s portal and got an appoint for later the same day. My colleague at North Park did the same thing a week ago at Jewel/Osco, a local grocery chain. Our neighbor emailed directions on how to register. So, I decided to do just that… on my phone.
The first step was to register on the MyAdvocateAurora portal which was similar to MyNorthwesternMedical which is my primary care provider. That was relatively easy to do except for using an Oh instead of a zero as the lead character on my insurance card membership number. I just assumed that it was an O and it stood for an Older guy.
My next step was to schedule an appointment. I could easily get to pages where I could register for flu shots. I did the same for shingles shots. There was a button for Covid vaccine information, so, naturally, I clicked on it. There was certainly a lot of information to be certain on that page but nothing about scheduling an appointment for the vaccine. I went back to my neighbor’s email and read it again and learned I was supposed to look for a “schedule an appointment” button. It was nowhere to be found on the mobile website. I was thinking, dang, I might have to download the app or move to a laptop.
Of course, I did neither of those two alternatives. I continued on my phone to maximize frustration.
I found a button for scheduling a flu vaccine that I had not seen before. I clicked it and was given a choice of two buttons flu or Covid vaccine. OK then. I clicked on it and was taken to a page where it said to enter a code that was to be emailed to me. Ah yes, this is familiar. I went to the email that I had entered when I registered for the portal and there was no email… yet. So, I stared at it for a while. Nothing. I stared a while longer. Still nothing. So, I went back to the portal website and tried entering a clever code: 123456. Oddly, the website said it was wrong. Still no email.
So, I called my neighbor and she told me that she had the same issue, and she used the code of her friend was sent. It worked. She had written that in her email. I said something really clever, “I have to really learn to thoroughly read emails.” I thought the same exact thing with the addition of expletives and adjectives related to my lack of common sense and basic intelligence.
I entered the code that was emailed to the friend of my neighbor… and it worked.
Are you kidding me?
If one code works for everybody, why require a code in the first place. Hey, why not make the code 123456? Ugh.
The next step was to answer six yes/no and I understand/don’t understand questions. It asked did I live in Illinois or Wisconsin (did I not enter my address earlier). I got them all right. Yay! But, each question required I click on the answer button and then hit the continue button… poor design but OK. I next had to select a few preferences. Did I want locations near me, near my home, or any available location. I picked any available location. Cool. Then it listed them. I chose the one closest to home. It was less than 6 miles away. Then I had to choose my appointment day and time. It took me a while to get to this point, but it was beginning to seem worth the wee bit of inconvenience.
Wow… there were appoints available for the next few days at every time slot. I picked a convenient one, hit continue, and was asked if my information was correct. This information included every address, email, number, and question answer I had entered since I started. Really? I hit the correct button. It asked me again. Really squared??
Then, the webite literally responded with “Oops, something went wrong begin again.”
I dropped an f-bomb and began again but just from the Covid vaccine part.
I had to answer all the questions over again. No problem. I chose the appointment time again and… the exact same idiotic “Oops” start again comment. So, I did it again, 14 times.
On the 15th try, the site started showing there were no appointments available at any location for the entire month of February. What should I do? Well, I tried again another 17 times and kept getting the same results. I was most definitely frustrated and realized I spent an hour and a half doing this.
This morning on the way to school there was a segment about the difficulties older folks were having trying to get registered and get appointments to get the vaccine. No sh*t Sherlock.
There are so many ways they could have designed and manage this process better but it is what it is.
I tried several more times today from my laptop and kept getting the same result.
My wife suggested I just keep trying.
Well, I did just that half-way through writing this piece and… I am scheduled for getting the vaccine this Saturday at one of their hospitals in the city. It was worth the effort.
I am glad I got scheduled but, dang, I will use the design of the portal and the underlying process as an example in my next lecture in the Information Systems class I am teaching this quad.
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