How NC HealthConnex Helps Providers and the Division of Public Health Manage Vaccinations

How NC HealthConnex Helps Providers and the Division of Public Health Manage Vaccinations

August is National Immunization Awareness Month, a time when health care professionals and public health officials are reminding the public of the importance of routine vaccinations. The observance comes just as children head back to school, and illnesses such as cold, flu, RSV and COVID-19 are on the rise. The CDC is likely to recommend an annual COVID-19 vaccine along with the annual flu vaccine this fall.

We spoke with Caroline Helton, Vaccine Systems and Support unit manager from the Immunization Branch of the N.C. Division of Public Health (DPH), about how NC HealthConnex, the state-designated health information exchange, supports the data in the North Carolina Immunization Registry (NCIR) and improves workflow for public health officials and providers.

The NCIR was developed in 2005 as a birth-to-death immunization registry that captures data on vaccines administered by providers throughout the state. The registry facilitates reporting of statewide immunization data for public health officials and helps providers manage vaccine administration to patients.

“It’s important to keep a complete record on the patient, especially as transient as a lot of folks are nowadays,” said Helton. “If they’re seen by health departments and pharmacies and various other providers, the NCIR keeps all of their immunization information in one location.”

Some providers electronically submit vaccine data by logging into the NCIR directly. However, if the provider is connected to the NCIR through NC HealthConnex, the vaccine information is sent automatically to the registry via existing integrations with their electronic medical record system (EMR). This saves providers time by eliminating double data entry into their EMR and separately into the NCIR.

“Which helps with data quality,” said Helton, “because providers don’t forget to enter vaccines in one system or another. I'm sure they don't forget to enter the data into their EMR or their EHR, but they could potentially forget to enter it in NCIR, for example. So, NC HealthConnex is helping to ensure that we're getting complete data because it's reducing that burden.”

Connecting to the NCIR through NC HealthConnex can also save costs for providers because they do not have to pay to make a technical connection to both systems. While the N.C. Health Information Exchange Authority (NC HIEA), which operates NC HealthConnex, offers its services free of charge, some EHR vendors do charge to make this technical connection. 

Connecting to either system does require technical testing to conform to implementation standards. Providers who have a Full Participation Agreement with the NC HIEA and are interested in building a connection to the NCIR via NC HealthConnex should first verify that their EHR is ONC-certified.

The EHR vendor will then work with your health care organization to determine a pilot facility. If you are a Vaccine for Children (VFC) facility, you would need to be evaluated before onboarding. After testing is complete, the pilot facility will be monitored for any issues that need to be resolved before additional facilities using the same EHR can be onboarded.

Providers can also view immunization information submitted to NC HealthConnex and parsed from CCDs without having to log into another system. This means more time saved calling providers to see if a patient has received a vaccination at another provider's office.

Based on the age and history of the patient, the registry can also give providers recommendations on suggested doses and indicate if a patient, especially a child, is due for a vaccination. Providers can also use it for inventory management and placing orders for vaccines. Automated reporting to the NCIR can also help providers meet certain Promoting Interoperability requirements.

The Immunization Branch uses the NCIR for public health reporting to the state and federal government. They are required to account for all the doses that providers use through the Vaccines for Children program. They also evaluate the doses administered for equity and assess how well immunized populations are at certain ages.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Immunization Branch used the Covid Vaccine Management System (CVMS), to assess COVID vaccinations. NC HealthConnex was also a data partner for this system. As the COVID-19 vaccine becomes part of routine care, this reporting is transitioning back to the NCIR.

Helton said that NC HealthConnex has been a huge benefit to streamlining that reporting workflow, especially for pharmacies.

“With COVID, the pharmacies were responsible for administering a lot of the doses,” said Helton, “Getting that information through NC HealthConnex has really helped with the record keeping. Going back to that complete immunization record, it has helped increase the number of providers who are currently connected.”

And the more providers who are connected to NC HealthConnex, the more complete the data flowing to the NCIR, as providers only have to enter vaccine information into one system. This helps the Immunization Branch achieve greater accuracy in their reporting of vaccines and doses to the CDC.

If you are a Full Participant of the NC HIEA and would like more information on connecting to the NCIR, please visit our website or contact us at hiea@nc.gov.