Ardens has developed a number of Childhood Immunisation resources to assist practices with the latest national requirements. The following support article outlines the resources available and how to locate and use within your clinical system.
Recalling Children Due Vaccinations
We understand a majority of the recalling for Childhood immunisations will be actioned by Child Health. For practices that do not have this process in place and they are required to recall patients, the Ardens Childhood Immunisation Recall system will help.
The Ardens Childhood Immunisation Recall and Uptake Searches supports practices with the flow of recalling patients in for vaccinations according to the correct schedule. It consists of a group of searches to identify which patients are due a first, second or third invitation.
For further information on how to use the recall and uptake searches, please see the following support article.
Recording Childhood Immunisation Data
In order to meet the requirements of QOF and accurate payment for CQRS, it is important that the correct vaccination codes are applied to the patient record.
The Ardens 'Childhood Immunisation' template can be used to follow the latest guidance and capture the relevant vaccination codes.
To locate the template, access the relevant patient record. Open a new consultation and select the Run Template option (alternatively select the Add > Data Using Template option outside of a consultation).
This will open the Template Picker screen. If you have accessed any templates before, these will display to the left of the screen. Search for the template by typing “childhood” in the search box.
This will return the Childhood Immunisation (Ardens) template (alternatively select the Ardens > Consultation templates > Paediatrics template folder to the right of the screen).
Double click on the template to launch.
The PSD/PGD page provides details of the last coded PSD/PGD entry (click on the arrows icon to ensure the PSD is for the correct medication), along with sections to record authorisation to be given under PSD and administration under PSD:
Depending on the age of the child, select the relevant page to the left of the screen.
This will include the relevant data fields to record the consent, contraindications for each vaccination and vaccination given. Any information displayed in red relates to QOF payment.
Capture the required information and Save Template once complete.
Monitoring QOF Childhood Immunisation Achievement
NHS England introduced a new Vaccination and Immunisation domain for 2021, consisting of 4 indicators. Three of these indicators focused on routine childhood vaccinations, please see details below:
- VI001: The % of babies who reached 8 months old in the proceeding 12 months, who have received at least 3 doses of a diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis containing vaccine before the age of 8 months (18 points).
- VI002: The % of children who reached 18 months old in the preceding 12 months, who have received at least 1 dose of MMR between the ages of 12 and 18 months.
- VI003: The % of children who reached 5 years old in preceding 12 months, who have received a reinforcing dose of DTaP/IPV and at least 2 does of MMR between the ages of 1 and 5 years.
There are very limited personal care adjustments for these indicators and practices are encouraged to monitor the cohort of birthdates and ensure patients are scheduled accordingly to meet payment requirements.
To support this, Ardens has created a useful search suite to monitor patients turning the required age range and whether or not they have had their scheduled vaccination and immunisations. These searches can be located in the Population Reporting module > Ardens Searches > 5.23 Contracts - QOF - Vaccs + Imms > search folder:
Further information on the searches above can be found in the following support article, including searches to improve on data quality for this area.
Monitoring Uptake and CQRS Extractions for Childhood Immunisations
A majority of CQRS claims will be automatically extracted via GPES. The 'Ardens CQRS searches' will support practices in monitoring data to be extracted. These searches can be located in the Population Reporting module > Ardens Searches > 5.40 Contracts - CQRS 2022-23 search folder.
Please note - before completing any major work in this area, we always recommend you check to see if you have the latest version of these searches. Access the Ardens Portal to view the latest version of the '5.40 Contracts - CQRS Searches 2022/23' folder and download if needed.
To view details of patients who have been extracted as part of CQRS automatically, please see the following support article.
Alongside the automatic CQRS claims for certain Childhood Immunisatons, information is extracted quarterly for the Cover of vaccination evaluated rapidly (COVER) programme. This is reporting on the practice coverage achieved by the UK childhood immunisation programme. Practices can monitor the data to be extracted by using the Ardens COVER programme searches.
These searches can be located in the Population Reporting module > Ardens Searches > 3.20 Vaccinations - Other > Childhood Immunisations (0-6y) > COVER Programme Uptake (Quarterly) search folder.
Identifying Incorrect Data Recording
To support practices in identifying incorrect or missing data that does not meet the contract requirements, Ardens has created a suite of data quality searches.
For QOF purposes
To locate the searches, access the Population Reporting module > Ardens Searches > 5.23 Contracts - QOF Vaccs + Imms > Data Quality search folder.
Please see the dedicated support article for further information on these searches.
For CQRS purposes
To locate the searches, access the Population Reporting module > Ardens Searches >5.40 Contracts - CQRS 2022-23 > Data Quality Checks.
If you require any further assistance on the process above, please contact Ardens support on: support-emis@ardens.org.uk