Patients with upcoming vaccine appointments at Mount Sinai Health System—some scheduled months in advance—are being notified this week that they should look elsewhere. The cancellations affect thousands of people seeking the life-saving immunizations, according to an insider at the hospital.

The health system is canceling all of its first doses for patients, and similar appointments for employees won’t be fulfilled after February 23rd. That’s according to a letter Dr. Vicki LoPachin, chief medical officer at Mount Sinai, sent to faculty and staff Sunday. She said Mount Sinai is honoring second-dose appointments for employees and patients but putting new bookings on hold for the time being.

LoPachin cited the rapid expansion of eligibility groups as the cause, saying that the city and state “revised their vaccine allocation plan” this week in light of people with certain health conditions becoming eligible. She went on to imply that the supply is strategically being shifted from hospitals to city- and state-run vaccine sites. As a result, “we, like other health systems across the region and the state, will be getting no new supply of first-dose vaccines this week,” LoPachin stated.

The city and state Health Department did not respond to a request for comment, and NYC Health + Hospitals said it is not experiencing a shortage of vaccine supply and continues to honor appointments. In a statement to Gothamist/WNYC, Mount Sinai confirmed “sudden changes” in its vaccine supply, and said that “upon delivery of additional vaccine, we will reopen vaccination appointments for eligible patients. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused.”

After the publication of this article, a spokesperson for Governor Andrew Cuomo, Jack Sterne, said the administration had "repeatedly told providers not to schedule appointments for the following week until they are notified how many doses they are being allocated.

"We are not sure why Mt. Sinai continues to ignore State guidance, put themselves in a situation where they have to cancel appointments, and create this hardship for their staff and patients—but every other hospital has been able to follow the rules, and seeing as Mt. Sinai has had to cancel appointments twice in two months, we are reaching out to discuss the issue with their senior leadership," Sterne said.

But a health care administrator working in vaccine distribution at Mount Sinai—who requested anonymity because they were not permitted to speak to the press—said they fear Mount Sinai’s vaccine sites are essentially being sunsetted.

In mid-January, Mount Sinai had to cancel appointments due to a drop in supplies that impacted a number of its hubs. But that was seen as a “hiccup,” according to the administrator. Those doses were rescheduled. This time it is unclear to the administrator if they will eventually be able to rebook this fresh batch of canceled appointments.

“For patients, it’s tough,” the administrator said. “Our calendar was blown out the first day that the appointments were open.”

Mount Sinai did not say how many appointments were canceled, but the administrator estimated it was in the thousands. Each vaccine site at Mount Sinai gives out between 500 and 1,500 vaccinations a day, the administrator said.

Upper West Sider Eleanor Coufos scheduled her vaccine appointment with Mount Sinai in early January and was due to receive her first shot on March 3rd. Then, the hospital canceled and directed her to make a new reservation elsewhere.

“It’s very frustrating because the appointment process is so hard and you feel like you’ve now gone back to the drawing board,” said Coufos, who is eligible for a vaccine because she works at a high school. “I feel especially bad for anyone who’s not savvy with a computer or who is elderly and has now been put at the back of the line.”

Patients like Coufos booked time-slots weeks ahead of time since they qualified during the early stages of the rollout as essential workers or senior citizens. Now they’re being sent back to the drawing board in the much broader pool of people—4.5 million NYC residents—currently vying for a time-slot.

Vaccine dosage allocated to New York State

New York State Department of Health

Supplies have remained a challenge to an efficient rollout of the vaccine in New York and across the country. The Biden administration committed to a total increase of 26% in vaccine supplies to the state in the coming weeks. Supplies from the week of January 25th to February 1st rose around 28%, with 320,525 doses arriving in New York state. But last week, supplies dropped slightly by about 3,000 doses. The National Governors Association, chaired by Governor Andrew Cuomo, asked President Joe Biden for better coordination on vaccine distribution in a letter on Monday.

Coufos said she and others in her building helped older neighbors schedule vaccine appointments with Mount Sinai that have also now been cancelled. The digital divide is keeping many older adults without high-speed internet or computers—about 30% of the seniors in NYC—from accessing the vaccine. Coufos said she tried again Monday to look for online appointments without any luck. Coufos emailed local elected officials proposing that the canceled appointments should be honored at other locations.

Gothamist/WNYC reached out to other hospital networks in the city to see if they were experiencing a similar issue. A spokesperson for NYU Langone said the hospital network’s vaccine supply is down this week but it is not canceling appointments, adding, “We won’t make an appointment unless we have vaccine in hand to do so. That’s been our policy/system throughout.”

NYU Langone is instead prioritizing certain groups. As New Yorkers with pre-existing conditions start getting vaccinated this week, NYU Langone said it is focusing on its cancer patients first, while continuing to offer doses to patients 65 and older.

LoPachin’s letter to employees at Mount Sinai noted that if someone works onsite at one of the health network’s facilities and has not yet received a vaccine, they can put their name on a waiting list to get one. But she added that it may be quicker to look elsewhere.

“It is clear based on the changing guidance over the past week that an ongoing expansion of city and state vaccination sites puts pressure on continued supplies to hospitals,” the letter said.

Editor's note: This story was updated with a comment from the governor's office.