Over-the-Phone COVID Vaccination Scheduling System Now in Spanish

Shot-Line, St. Luke’s over-the-phone vaccination scheduling system, is now in Spanish too –  facilitating and expediting outreach to Spanish speakers who have yet to register for a COVID vaccine appointment.

This unique outbound-dialing system, developed by and exclusively for St. Luke’s, enables those whose preferred language is Spanish to self-schedule their appointments over the phone in less than three minutes.

Here’s how it works: St. Luke’s patients over age 65 who have previously indicated Spanish as their preferred language may receive a call on the phone number listed on their St. Luke’s patient records.  During the call from 1-866-785-8537, an automated voice recording will ask if the patient would like to receive the vaccine.

Additionally, St. Luke’s Shot-Line was recently upgraded to allow users to explore all available time slots, three at a time, as well as to choose from various locations.  This outbound-dialing system eliminates the need for people to call and wait on hold to schedule a vaccine.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for all of our patients who are eligible for the vaccine to get it,” said Shishir Singh, Director of Development, Information Technology.

“With Shot-Line, we are able to dial up to 25 people per minute,” Singh said.  “It’s a much better user experience – no waiting on hold, no waiting for a call back.  Our only limitation continues to be vaccine availability.”  

System developed internally

Singh and other members of the St. Luke’s Information Technology Department developed Shot-Line’s automated scheduling system internally.  The technology was piloted in English with a small number of patients earlier this year and has since been steadily refined and expanded to more and more patients.