When a new online and easy-to-use COVID-19 vaccine appointment portal was launched as a pilot program at 28 military medical treatment facilities last December, the hope was to expand it globally in the first few months of 2021.
That goal is being accomplished, and in the last month, military service members and beneficiaries around the world have been able to quickly and easily make their own COVID-19 vaccination appointments using the tool, called the DHA Appointing Portal (DAP).
"DAP is a simple online tool to help patients schedule the time and date for your COVID-19 vaccine appointment at your closest military hospital or clinic," said Air Force Lt. Col. Regina Tow, project manager, DHA COVID-19 Vaccine Information Technology Planning. "It's accessible from outside the Department of Defense network on any computer, tablet, or smartphone."
The innovation originated at Madigan Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, last year, and after the pilot, it is now "stood up from Landstuhl (Medical Center), Germany, all the way to Korea," said Rick Barnhill, deputy chief medical information officer at Madigan Army Medical Center, JBL-M. Barnhill was quick to credit his lead computer scientist, Scott Evans, with development of the low-cost tool.
Army Maj. Heather Woodruff, chief of the Clinical Systems Support Department for the Directorate of Healthcare Operations at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in Virginia, was involved with the pilot program.
"Across our Military Health System, one of our biggest constraints was having a good scheduling platform for our beneficiaries and for those (non-military) personnel eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine," said Woodruff, DAP's administrator at Fort Belvoir. "We didn't have an appointing center ... and not everybody had access to TRICARE online, so it was really kind of challenging.