Via a joint news release on Friday, officials with the City and County of El Paso say they are preparing to centralize the registration process for the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Through the Communities of Excellence Program, we have continued to strengthen our partnership with University Medical Center. We have conducted Lean Six Sigma training together and have been able to reduce wait times at our testing and vaccine sites because of it,” said City Manager Tommy Gonzalez.
“Today’s announcement is yet another example of our collaboration. By working together, we are demonstrating to state and federal officials that we are ramping up our coordination and communication efforts as a community to be able to put more shots in arms quicker and more efficiently.”
“Data collection and understanding of how our vaccination process is unfolding have become exceedingly important to guide the direction and location of our community’s vaccination programs,” said Jacob Cintron, UMC President & CEO.
“There are great successes that UMC and the City of El Paso have partnered in achieving before and throughout the pandemic. As Tommy notes, Communities of Excellence has made our partnership foundation strong. And one of our successes has been the collection and sharing of data. Additionally, as we look to formalize a centralized pool of vaccination recipients, I am certain we will see our shared experience and mutually beneficial efficiencies come to fruition.”
The centralization process may take some time, requiring UMC to continue opening its registration portal a few more times until the process is finalized.
Once the mechanism to share data from the City’s list is established, UMC will no longer open its online registration system but will collaborate with the City of El Paso to administer vaccines to those on the comprehensive pre-registration list.
While the process continues to be refined, UMC will request a specified amount of registrants from the City of El Paso’s pre-registration list. UMC will then contact the individuals from the pre-registration list, schedule, enter data and administer 1st/2nd doses to those individuals at the County Coliseum site.
Similarly, the City will continue to administer 1st/2nd doses at one of the three City vaccine sites (George Perry, High Ridge and the Convention Center).
UMC will maintain a small portion of its weekly allocation for new healthcare personnel, patients that fall within Phase 1A or 1B, its clinics and/or for use by its single mobile unit.
For more information about data, testing and other COVID-19 information, visit EPStrong.org.
During the press conference, both the County Judge and the Mayor also sent a clear message to the community to only register for the vaccine if the required criteria is met. To see if you qualify to receive your vaccine, click here.
