After Salt Lake County's health department was swamped with appointment requests for its 3,600 doses of H1N1 vaccine Tuesday, it announced another avenue for shot-seeking residents: three pharmacy chains will administer 10,000 injections starting this week.

Fifty Harmons Grocery, Smith's Food & Drug and Walgreens pharmacies in the county will receive 200 doses each, for the priority groups defined by the federal government.

Harmons will start scheduling appointments Thursday. Smith's is already setting them. And Walgreens will provide shots on a first-come, first-served basis starting Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The vaccine is free but the pharmacies can charge an administrative fee, which could be covered

by insurance. Smith's is $10; Walgreens is $18, for example.

While pharmacy flu clinics are meant to make inoculation easier, they have drawbacks: By law, pharmacies cannot give the vaccine to children under 13, leaving parents of the younger, vulnerable group still hunting.

After hearing about the new pharmacy option, Gigi Thorsen rushed Tuesday to make an appointment for her 17-year-old. But her 11-year-old will have to wait.

"If I knew there was a way to get one of my kids immunized, I would get her done and then I would work on the other one," she said. "I just want to make sure they get the shot."

State health department data show nearly half of the 400 patients hospitalized with H1N1 are under the age of 24. There is no breakdown on hospitalizations for children under 13.

"It's definitely been frustrating to see [the vaccine] arrive in such limited quantities," said state health department spokesman Tom Hudachko. "If you're trying to look for the good news, it's that every dose that is arriving in the state is being given to people. Literally, we're vaccinating as many people as we possibly can."

Earlier in the day, Thorsen, of Sandy, tried to use the Salt Lake Valley

Health Department's new sign-up system for the vaccine by making an appointment online or by phone. But all of the doses were spoken for in 14 minutes.

The health department decided to use an appointment system instead of making people stand in line for hours at mass vaccination clinics. But it still proved frustrating for the ones who couldn't get through, like Thorsen.

Thorsen couldn't call up the Web page and her phone calls didn't connect.

"Were they prepared? Didn't they realize [Utahns] have a bazillion kids" who need the vaccine? she wondered.

Pam Davenport, spokeswoman for the county health department, said the system didn't crash. The demand simply outpaces the supply.

Eventually, the

state expects to receive 1.5 million vaccine doses. Every Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announces how many doses each state can claim.

Each of the state's 12 local health departments have their own distribution systems. For now, only Salt Lake County has partnered with pharmacies.

To date, the county has received 71,000 doses, administering 37 percent at its clinics, giving one quarter to hospitals for health care workers and certain hospitalized patients, and roughly another quarter to private care providers.

But if you go to the state's flu finder Web site to locate a H1N1 vaccine at a private provider, none turn up. That's because physicians are keeping it for their own patients and don't want it advertised that they have the vaccine.

"They don't want you to know," said Michelle Singleton, immunization program manager for the Weber-Morgan Health Department. She noted that her health department received 10,000 calls Monday for this week's 1,400 doses. She said the best bet is to call your child's pediatrician to see if they have the vaccine.

hmay@sltrib.com