Public Health Event Scheduler Application

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2022

In partnership with the Utah County Health Department, Utah County's Information Systems Department developed a user-friendly and scalable platform for scheduling public health events just in time to meet the incredible demand for distributing lifesaving COVID vaccines in Utah County in December of 2020. This project was conceived, designed, and delivered in less then 6 months and has resulted in successfully scheduling almost 400,000 appointments for obtaining vaccines even during the height of public demand with no appreciable downtime, likely saving thousands of lives. Using cloud, SMS messaging, and web technologies, the Information Systems Department developed a web-based registration portal that the public could use to quickly register for an appointment, often taking less than one minute, with assurance that there would be a vaccine dose reserved for them at that time. The Health Department uses this platform to quickly set up vaccination clinics that are scaled according to vaccine availability, staff availability, facility capacity, and current public demand, and pushes notifications for these events out to the public. The Public Health Event Scheduler Application can also be leveraged by the Health Department to provide other essential health services such as flu shot clinics, car seat installation classes, and more.