Ardens has provided practices with a suite of searches to monitor childhood immunisation uptake and to identify patients to be recalled.


The immunisation programme requires vaccines to be given to children at different ages. The Ardens Childhood Immunisation searches makes it easy for practice staff to determine which vaccine are to be given at each interval, along with a clinical template to ensure data is being recorded correctly when the vaccine has been given. 


The Ardens Childhood Immunisation Searches are based on the latest Public Health guidance and aligns with the COVER Programme.

 

Locating the Childhood Immunisation Searches 

To locate the searches, access the Population Reporting module > Ardens Searches folder > 3.20 Vaccinations - Other > Childhood Immunisations (0-6y) folder.

 


Recalling Patients

Folder 1. Recall includes a break down of the different cohorts, each containing sub folders for recall and uptake. 



To identify patients to be invited in, select the Call/Recall - XX folder for the required cohort. 



The Call/Recall searches for each cohort will follow the same structure. Below is an example of the Primary 8 week imms. 


 

The first search will identify the total number of eligible patients for the cohort. In this instance it will be children turning 8 weeks old.


 

This is further broken down by those that have no record of the required immunisations given in the scheduled time frame, neither have they declined or contraindicated. These patients will need to be invited. 



To support practices in identifying which invitations to send, this is followed by sub searches to identify which letter is due. 



Each sub search is looking for specific letter codes and will only pick up the codes applied while the patient has been registered at your practice. Therefore, if a patient has been sent a first invite at another organisation, this will not be picked up in the searches. 


To check which letter codes are being used, select the search (e.g. First Primary imms first letter due), click on the Definition tab on the bottom half of the screen and double click on the Clinical Codes option to display the codes being used.



Send the invites due following your practice processes.


For patients appearing in search 4 (e.g., 4. First primary imms due – 3+ letters > 7 days), please ensure you are following your practice safeguarding process to ensure the patient is being followed up. 


Patients that have declined or contraindicated will be excluded from the searches above, a separate search is available to view a list of these patients.



Although often very small numbers, there could be some children that have only had part of their scheduled immunisations. 

The ‘Excluded from recall as only had some XX imms’ will help to identify these patients and we advise practices to further investigate these children. Could they have had the immunisation but the wrong code entered in the patient record? If this is the case, ensure the correct code is added in the correct time frame.



The last search displayed in the particular cohort Call/recall folder will display the total number of eligible patients that have received all immunisation in the scheduled time frame. 



Folder 1.4 Early MMR 18m (London only) provides searches to identify patients eligible for early recall at 18months in accordance with the specific requirements of the London area only.



Monitoring Uptake 

The uptake figures and general childhood immunisation activity for each cohort can be found in the 2. Uptake folder. Each cohort will have a separate folder.

 

  

This will display the total number of children (based on age) and further broken down by those that have any immunisation missing and those that have had all scheduled immunisations.

 


This folder also contains the Ardens Child imms weekly report to allow practice staff to report on all childhood immunisations given last week, with the option to set the week to report on.  For more information please see the following support article.



Running the Searches

The searches can be run individually or by search folders. Right click on the required search folder/search and select the Run option. This will Queue the searches and eventually provide the results. 


The Population Count column will display the total number of patients that meet the search criteria.


With the required search selected, the bottom half of the screen will show you details of patients that have met the criteria ‘Population Included’ and those that do not meet the criteria ‘Population Excluded’.  



There maybe times when you want to find out further detail on why a patient does or does not meet a particular search criterion and this is where the EMIS Check Feature tool is useful. Further details on how to use the Check Feature tool can be found here.


Please bear mind when using the Check Feature tool, that the Ardens Childhood Immunisation Searches are often based on rules from another search. Example below.



If this is the case, using the Check Patient Feature option will only display whether the patient is included or excluded in the rule, not necessarily the details of why. 


To drill down further, take note of the name of the rule, in the example of above this is ‘Had no 1yr immunisations, not declined or contraindicated’. Select the Denominators searches folder for the particular cohort.



Locate the search and click on the Check Patient Feature on the EMIS ribbon to check for further details.



Please note –  if you are checking patients for specific details of immunisations given, this can be located in the 4. Immunisation denominators folder. 



 

Recording Childhood Vaccinations Given

Ardens has provided a clinical template to offer guidance and to support practice staff in recording the correct vaccination codes.


Locate the template via the Run Template option within a Consultation (or Add > Data using Template option outside a consultation).


Search ‘Childhood’ and select the ‘Childhood Immunisations (Ardens)' template to launch.



Cover Programme Uptake and CQC Searches

To support practices in monitoring achievement, the Cover Programme Uptake searches and CQC uptake searches are available.


Please note - for CQRS, patients that reach the eligible age for extraction during a quarter will be in the extract for the following quarter. The reports across these folders will allow you to see which patients are about to be extracted, based on the current quarter. Practices may wish to review the child's vaccination status prior to extraction. 



The 3. Miscellaneous > MMR before schedule folder will identify children that have had their 1st MMR dose but are needing their 2nd dose.  Practices may wish to review this list of patients and invite the patient in early for their MMR.



Troubleshooting


I have patients appearing in the ‘Excluded from recall as only had some 8 week imms’ and I am not sure which immunisations are still outstanding and which immunisations the patient has had?

To view details of what is missing, select the ‘5.Denominator searches’ folder within 1.1 Primary Imms searches folder. 


Select the ‘Had any 8 week immunisations (according to schedule)’ search (ensure it has been run), click on the Check Patient option on the EMIS ribbon and search for the patient. This will display which immunisations the patient has or has not had.


I have sent a First letter due for the patient, but they are not disappearing from the search?

Ensure you are using the correct first letter due codes, select the Definition tab for further details and that the patient had been fully registered at your practice during the time you sent the first letter.


I have patients appearing in the ‘Had no one year immunisations, not declined or contraindicated’ search but the patient has been given the vaccination?

Check the correct vaccination code has been used within the right scheduled time frame. 


How often should I be running these searches?

Due to specific schedules set for patient receiving the immunisations, we suggest running the searches weekly to ensure you are inviting patients in close to the required age range as possible.


What should I be doing if there has been no response to 3 invites?

Its important the patient is followed up, we have provided searches to help you identify these patients. We suggest following practice processes on escalating any concerns for these patients. 


How can I make sure my practice staff are entering the correct vaccination codes to ensure we are being paid correctly?

Point them to the Ardens Childhood Immunisation clinical template. 


If you require any further assistance on the process above, please contact Ardens support on: support-emis@ardens.org.uk