Got my covid-19 vaccine shot on Sunday through Kaiser Permanente. I have to salute their efficiency:
- I got an email notice from them which included a ticket with which to make an appointment. I assume this was based on screening their database for people over 75 residing in Virginia.
- I selected my appointment time with a little problem--used my laptop which didn't display the whole signup page, so initially I missed a popup notice which appeared at the top of the page. Figured that out when I tried again on my desktop. I think they were doing appointments at 10 minute intervals, but I might be wrong.
- Got a confirmation from KP, together with the message of not to arrive more than 15 minutes before the time.
- Drove to Tysons and read a book in the car until 15 minutes before time.
- Walked into the building. Was greeted by staffer1 and was directed to staffer2, who in turn directed me to an empty intake station (I'm guessing they had 6 intake stations, each with a staffer3 to confirm my identity and appointment and record the intake, completing a card and scheduling me for the appointment for the second shot.
- Was then directed down a hallway by staffers3 and 4 to an empty vaccination station (one of several) with staffer5, perhaps a nurse, who asked about allergies and previous experience with vaccinations and gave me the jab.
- Was then directed to a waiting room, where staffer6 gave me a note showing the time I could leave (i.e. 15 minutes after I arrived).
- Then got in the car and left. I didn't check my watch, but I'd guess I spent 25 minutes in the process, 15 of which were post-shot waiting.
So, bottom line--I had no unnecessary waiting time and everything went smoothly.
I got the shot in the mid-afternoon, so I don't know how the process operated early or late, but from my experience it seems they did a great job of matching resources to demand. They used lots of staff--half the people I interacted with were traffic police--but that was because they were using three different rooms and weren't able to organize a straight workflow.
