Did you know? August is National Immunization Month! As part of our Federal work, Ai participates in several projects aimed at enabling access to vaccine information stored in Immunization Information Systems (IIS) as well as interoperability efforts for vaccine data.
Curious about what an IIS is?
Check out these 10 facts to learn more:
1.There are currently 64 IIS serving states and regions throughout the country, storing vaccine information in a confidential, population-based system.
2. IIS facilitate workflow and help manage administrative costs by tracking inventory and distribution, streamlining the vaccine ordering and other vaccine-related business processes.
3. IIS eliminate the need and cost of coordinating point-to-point immunization record transfers between healthcare providers.
4. IIS reduce data entry time and improve data accuracy and completeness through the ability to submit data electronically from the EHR to the IIS and facilitate direct import of patient immunization records from the IIS to the patient’s electronic chart.
5. IIS help to decrease missed opportunities to immunize patients.
6. IIS enhance patient reminder and recall efforts (studies have shown that patients are not highly accurate in recalling their own vaccination status, so IIS can help by keeping track for them).
7. IIS improve patient immunization rates and Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) scores, which may be tied to Pay for Performance (P4P) programs.
8. IIS decrease vaccine administration errors using robust vaccine forecasting algorithms.
9. IIS allow the patient immunization record, (a core component of the pediatric medical history) to be truly portable and follow the patient regardless of service location by generating affordable, accurate records for patients, schools, health professionals requiring proof of vaccination for their employer, and childcare. They also provide the most reliable source of aggregated vaccine information.
10. IIS help to identify vulnerable populations of patients who may be under-vaccinated during an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable infection.
Now that we’ve covered the basics of IIS, make sure to tune in next week to learn about how Ai’s federal team in contributing to several projects involving various IIS!
Eilleen Lane
Associate | Audacious Inquiry