News

Health Department working to fix call center problems

By Lightning Reports, Published: January 20, 2021

Although it upgraded its phone operation to try to accommodate an overwhelming number of calls seeking Covid-19 vaccination appointments, the Henderson County Department of Public Health said Wednesday morning that two problems had cropped up.

The call center reopened for approximately 700 Covid-19 vaccination appointments at 8:30 a.m.

"At least one of the Call Center lines this morning was inadvertently set to funnel messages to a voicemail," the health department said. "This was an error within a new system setup that is being tested with high volume public demand for the first time today. Within minutes, hundreds of messages were left on the voicemail with no other options being provided to callers. The error has now been resolved. We regret this mistake, but need to ask anyone who left a message to please call back 828-585-4700 to schedule an appointment.

"The Health Department is also aware of an issue where some callers are being kicked out after approximately 30 minutes of waiting on hold. We are working to resolve this issue.”

Before noon, Public Health Director Steve Smith said the 700 vaccine appointments had been filled.