CORHIO Collaborating With Public Health to Streamline Immunization (CIIS) Reportin
Date: November 6th, 2012Category: CORHIO e-NewsletterTopics: Public Health ReportingCORHIO and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) are working towards a successful exchange of immunization data.
Once complete, this interface will allow hospitals or medical practices to upload immunization data through CORHIO’s Health Information Exchange (HIE) and it will be transmitted to the Colorado Immunization Information System (CIIS). CIIS is a statewide computerized system that collects and disseminates immunization information for Coloradans of all ages.
Operated by the Colorado Immunization Section at CDPHE, CIIS enables any immunization provider in Colorado to electronically track immunizations a person has received either by manually entering the patient’s data into the CIIS web application or by interfacing their electronic health record (EHR) system with CIIS. This allows providers to contribute to an ongoing and complete record to ensure their patients receive all recommended shots in a timely manner. CIIS has 1,587 provider offices and school districts on the system and contains records for 3.7 million patients. The patient opt-out rate is extremely low, at 0.3%.
“The idea behind the registry is that 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, providers can have access to a consolidated immunization record for anyone we have in the system,” said Diana Herrero, MS, program manager. “It’s a lifelong registry — so it includes records from birth to death.”
CIIS Eases Immunization Workflow
Each child born in Colorado needs 18 to 23 immunizations before age six, creating complicated immunization records providers need to keep track of. “Providers can use CIIS to run lists of patients that are coming due for immunizations so they can send out reminders,” said Herrero. “Or for patients who are overdue, they can pull a list and send out recall notifications.”
CIIS has several helpful features, including an inventory management module so providers can manage their inventory of vaccine doses within the system. There’s also a companion application specific for schools, which saves staff time gathering immunization documents for incoming students.
“CIIS provides other tools — at the programmatic level, we can query the data to see where there’s low uptake of immunizations,” said Herrero. “Providers can also do this for their patient population. And local public health agencies can run immunization rates for their counties or zip codes (to implement targeted interventions if needed).”
Interface Will Help Providers and Hospitals Meet Stage 2 Meaningful Use Requirement
Meaningful Use Stage 1 requires both hospitals and eligible providers wishing to attest to submit a test message to a state immunization registry, which in Colorado is CIIS. Stage 2 takes it farther and requires ongoing submissions. There is currently a waiting list for practices that want to attest to Meaningful Use by connecting directly to CIIS.
“Volume is our largest obstacle — we have approximately 340 provider groups on the waiting list for an interface to CIIS,” said Heather Shull, interoperability unit supervisor. “While our point-to-point interface development and maintenance is not likely to disappear, a functional CORHIO immunization registry interface will help us assist hospitals and providers in meeting the immunization reporting requirements for Stage 2 Meaningful Use.”
HIE to Streamline Immunization Data Exchange
Currently, CIIS has point-to-point connections with many hospitals and practices to receive immunization information electronically and the data received must be in Health Level 7 (HL7) or flat file format. To date, CIIS has established one way, batch HL7 interfaces for clinics using the following EHRs: athenahealth, CareTracker, eClinicalWorks, e-MDs, EMC Corporation (VaxTrax), Epic, MEDITECH, NextGen, RPMS (Indian Health Services), Intergy, SuccessEHS and SYSTOC. CIIS has also established bi-directional HL7 data exchange with Epic.
“Once an interface [between CIIS and CORHIO] is in place, it will give providers another avenue to connect to us,” said Herrero. “We would have a single connection with CORHIO where there’s already multiple providers connecting.”
“CORHIO is dedicated to providing secure exchange of CDPHE clinical immunization information, becoming the connection for public health data in the state of Colorado,” said Larry Wolk, MD, CEO of CORHIO.