As most people are well aware by now, there are a number of COVID vaccines out in the wild now, with roughly a million people every day getting a shot from one of them. That’s quite the accomplishment given that a year ago today, many people believed any sort of vaccine was likely impossible, to say nothing of getting one by the end of 2020. Thanks to a lot of hard work and the clearing of administrative roadblocks made possible by Operation Warp Speed, we have not one, not two, but actually four out there getting distributed.
While the development of so many new vaccines in so short a time is impressive, another daunting task is to actually manage all the data related to the distribution of those vaccines. Which groups should get it first? Who has had it and who still needs it? Who has had one shot and who has had two? What sort of side effects might arise after taking the shot? All of these are important data points to keep track of. The CDC in Atlanta recognized this and set about ensuring that a system was developed that would be capable of managing it all effectively. At least, that’s what they hoped would happen.
What actually happened is a debacle on par with the launch of HealthCare.gov. The CDC issued a no-bid contract to consulting firm Deloitte to develop the Vaccine Administration Management System (VAMS). $44 million dollars later and what the CDC got was not a stunning accomplishment in the world of software development but something that only those who remember Windows Vista could appreciate. Instead of seamlessly tracking appointments and available supplies and all the rest of it, VAMS randomly drops appointments, thinks you’re literally getting a needle in your arm when you aren’t even in the building, and randomly locks staff members out of the system. I don’t care who you are, that program is anything but a success.
While the CDC and Deloitte acknowledge that the system has a few bugs that need to be worked out, they point to user error as a cause. While that might technically be true in some cases, when your system does such a lousy job that a professional health director can’t figure it out after 24hrs of trying, that a 100 doses of vaccine got wasted because VAMS couldn’t keep track of them, and hordes of volunteers are needed to transfer information from paper to the actual system, the problem is in fact the system. Or to perhaps put it more succinctly, when the name of your super great software system becomes a curse word amongst healthcare staff, the system is definitely the issue.
It is so bad that many states are in fact reverting back to paper records because it’s more efficient. Others are going with a paid option rather than struggling with the ‘free’ VAMS system, or even using a patchwork of other systems such as Eventbrite – a system used to manage things like concerts – to keep track of appointments.
How on earth did this happen? How could we possibly have gotten here with a digital revolution going on around us? Part of the issue is that this was a no-bid contract. Anytime that happens, alarm bells should be going off. It usually means that there some backs getting scratched money going into accounts that has nothing to do with the actual contract. Another is that Deloitte is actually run by accountants, not software experts or healthcare professionals. They most likely outsourced it to whatever firm had the lowest bid, didn’t test it and then sent it off to the CDC knowing they would never be held accountable.
Some have pointed to Deloitte being a private enterprise as part of the issue. However, they really aren’t private. Given their obvious ties with the government and the fact they developed this product with no competition whatsoever, Deloitte is more like a quasi-Government agency akin to NASA. It is only a matter of time before a real private company, like TARTLE, which already has an efficient and easy to use system for sharing data worldwide, shows up and presents a solution that is workable and cost effective that will help save lives.
What’s your data worth? Sign up and join the TARTLE Marketplace with this link here.
