Austin Public Health

Sarah Upham

It is taking me well over a month to get the electronic copy of my COVID-19 vaccination record card. This is absolutely ridiculous. I have been having an ongoing issue for my APH account on having access to this document, and nobody is taking any form of accountability for resolving this issue, after an initial email communication and four separate service requests. Followed-up phone calls from the patient are not documented, and service requests are immediately closed out once transferred apparently. I have no idea how they're tracking ongoing chronic issues. Patient information shouldn't be taking well over a month for accessing.

Kareem Kennedy

I am writing to tell you about my disappointments and frustrations as a temporary employee at the Travis County Expo Center Testing Site. I know your stated agency motto is “to prevent disease, promote health, and protect the well-being of all” and as someone who was tasked with work at the testing site, I want to bring forward several ways in which this broke with the central idea of your policy. The atmosphere under which I worked was consistently and absurdly degrading- and after I brought issues forward in a collaborative spirit, I was fired from my post- and it is this final failure which indicates a commitment to public endangerment rather than public health. The weeks during which I worked were quite cold, and while the first day’s working conditions might have been unexpected, when I sought to make my colleagues and myself better insulated from the cold with equipment that was on site and unused, I was told no. Secondly, several APH employees, including the safety officer, would spend almost all of their time on the clock on their phones, and did not actively engage in the work we were all tasked to do. I say this, because the workplace was exceedingly dangerous- front line work greeting people who believed that they were infected with Covid 19, and one in three of whom would go on to test positive. In my good faith efforts to improve these conditions, I reported it to Stephanie Crookham, who seemed to take these recommendations seriously and in the constructive spirit in which I gave them. Instead of seeing improvements or getting a response to my constructive feedback, I was terminated from my job, without any justification. In short- I proactively and respectfully communicated to make the workplace safer, and as a result, with no reason given, I was fired from my position.

Evaline Lu

Dont go to the APH clinic at st. Johns on blessing street the people there are rude and accuse you of having a fake ID. If you schedule an appointmwnt and give them all the right information the day of the appointment they wont have anything write when they ask for your Id they say its not real and dont want to give it back. Then later say that the daughter I had with me wasn't mine what kind of clinic is this. A nurse named Wilson didn't says my id is fake and if I dont leave he would call security and the police. I had to call them because this Wilson man wouldnt leave me alone while I was on the phome then tolled security to watch us then they both proceed to say that Mexicans always have fake IDs. And this was comming from a Mexican and another Hispanic man. Truly disappointing and a horrible place to be.

Lucia Briones

I’ve gotten numerous tests over the last eight months and every time the process has been very fluid and handled with the utmost care for both the patient and provider. The longest I had to wait was maybe 30 minutes but that was with 30 parties in front of me back in January during a peak. Today, I just drive right in, my information’s always at hand and correct, and I’m out within five minutes. I am EXTREMELY grateful for all their help within the Austin community during this pandemic.