Southfield, Mich.-based Beaumont Health more than tripled the capacity of its computer server last weekend after a high volume of users flooded its patient portal to sign up for COVID-19 vaccines Jan. 8 and crashed the website.
Nearly 9,000 patients activated their myBeaumontChart accounts Jan. 8 to schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments, and at one point, more than 25,000 users simultaneously attempted to register on the website. In contrast, Beaumont processes about 900 new patient portal accounts on a typical day, according to a Jan. 10 news release.
"In the healthcare information technology space, having thousands of patients trying to register at once is unprecedented and our servers were maxed out," Beaumont Health CIO Hans Keil said in the news release. "It's similar to what happens when people try to purchase concert tickets as soon as they go on sale and everyone cannot get through at the same time."
Beaumont can vaccinate 3,200 people per day at its Beaumont Service Center in Southfield. The health system plans to expand to additional sites soon and will email personal invitations over the next few months to patients via myBeaumontChart to schedule appointments when they become eligible for the vaccine based on the state's criteria and dose availability.