

Quebec's Disney-inspired solution to flu-shot chaos  - cwan
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/h1n1-swine-flu/quebecs-disney-inspired-solution-to-flu-shot-chaos/article1364403/

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joezydeco
Funny, my county's health department just set up a number where you call and
set up a reservation to come in. Why go through all the trouble of making
people drive to the clinic twice?

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blueben
1\. Setting up a centralized high volume phone reservation system on short
notice is not easy or cheap.

2\. Setting up a centralized high volume system to print tickets is easy and
cheap.

There's a reason why the landscape is littered with software based startups,
but only precious few telephony based startups.

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joezydeco
Why does it have to be some specialized high volume custom phone system? I
don't think my local government did any such thing.

So people can't get through instantly and some probably can't ever get in
until demand lessens and inventories increase. How, statistically, does that
differ from putting a deli-style number dispenser on a corner and saying "go
for it!" to a city full of people?

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qw
One advantage is that you can serve more people at the same time. It is
probably much faster to push a button and get a ticket, than fighting a phone
system

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joezydeco
It might be faster to push a button and get a ticket, if you're already
standing in front of the machine. How are these people all getting to the
clinic? Are they driving? Taking public transportation? Cabs? Where are they
parking?

Now they all go home and come back a second time?

