Smallpox Vaccination Tracking Overview

If you haven't already done so, please read How to Set Up A Visit Category Protocol,Medical Activity and Result Codes Overview, Immunizations and Surveillance Overview before continuing!

Summary

the program can be used to track questionnaires administered to employees for any purpose. For smallpox, you may be distributing a questionnaire to employees to either (1) determine if they are willing to be First Responder or (2) determine if First Responder volunteers are medically fit for this duty. Of course, the program can also track the vaccination itself. If you are going to administer the vaccination at your own organization, your set-up will differ slightly from those organizations that will document that the vaccination was administered by the DOH or other organization. You can also use the program to track the follow-up and make notes about any problems that may occur.

To facilitate understanding, the topics have been set up in a browse sequence the recommended sequence for reading a group of topics in the Help system. You can access the screens in sequence by using the NEXT arrow just to the left of the browse sequence display. A drop down menu of browse sequences is listed at the top of the Help Screens, just to the right of the left pane. , which is visible at the top of these help screens. It is recommended that you view and execute the items in the defined sequence, by clicking the Next and Previous arrows at the top of the bar dividing this topic from the Help Contents pane.

SET-UP REQUIRED FOR TRACKING

The Help Screens below provide detailed steps to set up the items listed in your software. Instructions for how to track the various items are included in the Help Topic, Smallpox Vaccinations & Follow Up Tracking. You should read each topic fully before starting to set up your software. This will ensure you are clear about both the set up and the documentation of your smallpox activities.

Set Up Smallpox Vaccination / Followup Visit Category

Set Up First Responder Request (Questionnaire)

Set Up First Responder Medical Fitness Questionnaire

Set Up Small Pox Vaccination Medical Activity

Set Up Small Pox vaccination Follow up Medical Activity

You will also need to set up Smallpox as an illness, and as an exposure type, to ensure that you have these items available in the event of an illness or exposure. To complete these steps, please see Set Up Smallpox Illness & Exposure Codes.

You will want to add the Smallpox Vaccination and the Smallpox Followup medical activities to your Surveillance Profile. To do so, read the instructions, How to Alter the Surveillance Profile for Smallpox.

Finally, you might consider setting up one or more letters to be sent to people who volunteer to be First Responders (thanking them, for example and requesting they complete the Fitness for Vaccination questionnaire), and/or a second letter to send to people whose Fitness Questionnaire indicates they should not receive the vaccination and/or a third letter to those whose fitness questionnaire needs additional investigation. Finally, you may want a letter to people who have been medically cleared to receive the vaccination, with instructions for what to do to receive it. Each of these letters would be sent to one employee from the Patient Chart. We do not cover how to set up letters in these Smallpox instructions, as this process is well documented in the topic Reminder Letters Setup and Use.

DOCUMENTATION (TRACKING) INSTRUCTIONS

Regardless of whether your organization is going to administer the vaccination, you can use the software to document which employees received it, as well as the final outcome (i.e. whether or not the vaccination "took" or was equivocal.) If you are administering the vaccination, your instructions vary slightly, because you will be capturing the lot number and expiration date of the vaccine.

The Help Screens assume that you are seeing the employee for a visit to either (a) administer the vaccination or (b) follow up on a vaccination administered by another organization, such as the Health Department.

Here is the conceptual flow we are following. Detailed instructions follow below.

If you administer the vaccination, you will log a visit when you administer the vaccination. In the visit, you will document the vaccination with the medical activity, Smallpox Vaccination, and you will enter a result code indicating the vaccination was given. If you are not administering the vaccination, you will not log a visit for the vaccination itself. You should enter it through the Patient Chart, using the Surveillance Profile.

If you are following-up on employees after the vaccination, regardless of where the vaccination was administered, you should log a visit every time you see the employee. In these follow-up visits, you will add the medical activity, Smallpox Followup, and will enter a result code to indicate the status of the vaccination site (e.g. normal or adverse reaction).

Once the follow-up is complete and the final outcome of the vaccination is known, you will enter into the final follow-up visit, both the Smallpox Followup and the Smallpox Vaccination medical activities, and will enter the result code that corresponds to the final outcome, as indicated below.

Every time you see the employee for follow-up, except for the final visit, at the end of each visit you should schedule their next appointment in this software! If you are using the Appointment Calendar, you can then use the No Shows and Cancellations report to see who hasn’t come back for follow-up. If you are simply using the software scheduling capacity, you can run the Delinquent Scheduling report to see who has not returned for follow-up.

If you are using the Block Appointment Calendar, you should log visits from the Calendar, as you do with any other visit. Then follow the appropriate steps below to document the details of the vaccination (i.e. depending on whether or not you are administering the vaccination or simply tracking the follow-up.)

Once your setup is complete, you can:

1. Document the questionnaires for First Responders and Medical Fitness;

2. Document the administration of the smallpox vaccination, either by your own organization, the Department of Health (DOH) or other organization;

3. Document the follow-up performed by your organization, regardless of who administered the vaccination;

4. Run various reports related to smallpox.

See Also