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Photo: "Vaccination centre in Hamburg" / Photo credit & source: © Shutterstock
[Press release]
The global rollout of Covid vaccination centres has brought complications and chaos: appointment coordination is laborious, and doses expire when appointments go unattended. To support vaccination centres, a Leipzig startup has developed a virtual queue with integrated appointment booking.
The virtual queue “SENSAPE Q” is designed to ease the organisation of complex appointment scheduling while also avoiding infections in queues. Several German federal states already rely on digital appointment booking, but the risk of infection remains while waiting outside the vaccination centre. So does the problem of doses expiring because the cold chain has been interrupted for too long when a patient fails to show up. With its virtual queue, which also allows appointments to be booked on a smartphone, the German startup SENSAPE aims to tackle these issues. A few hours before their appointment, people are asked to confirm it. If they do not, the slot can be offered to others immediately and systematically. Patients in the queue are also notified automatically as soon as it is their turn.
“Vaccine doses have to be administered immediately once prepared. All the more frustrating when a dose has to be discarded because someone missed their appointment. With SENSAPE Q, people waiting in the queue could be notified in real time and the resource saved,” says Michael Lehnert of SENSAPE. Via a QR code on site or on the vaccination centre's website, patients could join the queue using their own smartphone, which also notifies them when their turn comes. The waiting time could then be spent in the car or nearby, minimising contact with other patients. According to the company, people without a smartphone can be issued a pager when they register on site at the vaccination centre. This addresses the widespread criticism of online booking portals – that people without internet access or a smartphone are disadvantaged in many places. Alternatively, registration can name a relative with a smartphone who reminds the patient once the notification arrives. The virtual system can additionally be supported by access control that measures capacity inside the vaccination centre or at reception, and uses Artificial Intelligence to detect whether and how visitors are wearing their face masks correctly.
Once capacity in the centre is reached, an audible and visual warning is issued. Capacity, or how full the vaccination centre currently is, can be viewed online in real time and is intended to inform the choice of appointment.
