Just nine states have adopted the $44 million software system the CDC launched in partnership with Deloitte to help with tracking COVID-19 vaccinations, according to a Jan. 28 Bloomberg report.
The CDC inked a contract with Deloitte & Touche in spring 2020 to develop the system, named Vaccine Administration Management System, or VAMS. The agency offers VAMS for free to states as a way to "manage vaccine administration from the time the vaccine arrives at a clinic to when it is administered to a recipient," according to the report.
Despite being live for one month, 41 states are not using the system and some have expressed frustration. In Virginia, Riverside Health System Chief Clinical Operations Officer Mike Dacey said the Newport News-based health system stopped using VAMS one week after implementing it because it was slow and kept crashing. Virginia is now switching to another vaccine management system from PrepMod.
Last fall, Idaho opted against using VAMS because the software did not seem "ready or able" to fix the state's problems, Idaho's immunization program manager Sarah Leeds told the publication.
The CDC declined to disclose VAMS' current users but told Bloomberg that it holds regular meetings for states to share feedback on improvements they'd like to the system, and Deloitte said it continues to update VAMS based on the feedback and priorities of the system's users.