Colorado has cut the time it takes vaccine providers to connect their EHRs to the state’s immunization registry by two-thirds. “When the systems are connected, it helps providers determine which vaccines patients need,” said Heather Roth Program Manager for the Colorado Immunization Information System at the Department of Public Health and Environment (DPHE) www.colorado.gov/cdphe.
It can take nine months or more to design, test, and validate an interface that allows the EHR system to exchange data with a state immunization registry since the state is performing the task for more than 75 individual EHR vendors.
The immunization registry called the “Colorado Immunization Information System” www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdphe/colorado-immunization-information-system-ciis is a secure, web-based system with more than 1,100 immunization providers. Groups such as local public health agencies, private doctor’s offices, pharmacies, health plans, community and rural health centers, plus school-based health programs are currently feeding information into the system.
Colorado’s immunization program doesn’t have the staff or resources to keep up with demand and so there is a backlog of more than 600 healthcare providers with more than 40 percent of them family practices. This backlog has been creating significant gaps in the state’s immunization data resulting in some vaccination coverage rates appearing artificially low.
Last year, a quality improvement team including the DPHE and the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization www.corhio.org, gathered baseline data, documented problems, identified solutions, and developed an implementation plan. The department was also able to hire more staff.
The program staff worked with an external contractor to create a system to allow healthcare providers and EHR vendors to quickly test messages from their electronic systems to ensure that they are able to meet data specifications.
These improvements trimmed the provider wait list from 637 down to 385 with another 153 providers in the testing phase. The department is also working on acquiring an EHR system for some local public health agencies that currently lack the capability.