The QOF Vaccination & Immunisaton searches will identify patients due to turn the age range of the vaccination and immunisation schedule for the QOF year. Practices may wish to use this search suite to chase patients not vaccinated, or to check the coding is correct if they believe the patient has been vaccinated. 

The searches can be located in the Population Reporting module > Ardens Searches > 5.23 Contracts - QOF - Vaccs + Imms search folder.

The folder has two main sub-folders – Action – Work to do and Review coding:

The Action – Work to do folder contains four straight forward reports, indicating for each of the QOF Vaccination and Immunisation indicators (VI001, VI002, VI003 and VI004) the patients who have not yet been vaccinated, and for whom there is still time for this to happen. 

Run the reports, then view the results, to see which patients you need to target.

For any patients appearing in the 'ACTION' reports, practices still have time to achieve these requirements by the end of the year and should therefore focus on this activity.

In the same folder, there is a sub-folder titled ‘More detail’.  

This ‘More detail’ folder provides the searches on which the ‘Work to do’ reports are based.

Please note - the patients in the 'ACTION’ searches will not always match the Population Excluded number in the GP Contract QOF searches.

The QOF requirements for the Vaccinations and Immunisations domains (VI001, VI002, VI003 and VI004) have very specific coding requirements.  To ensure that you are coding correctly, please use the Ardens Childhood Immunisations template.

The Review Coding folder contains the data quality searches to support the vaccinations and immunisation activities.  They will help practices to maximise their performance in these domains by finding patients but who do not meet the QOF coding requirements.

There are a number of reports, each helping to identify missing or incorrect coding on patient records, as indicated in the titles of the reports.

Please note – once a report has been run, you can use the 'View Results' option on the ribbon to see details of the patients and the dates of their original vaccines to check they were actually administered on the same day.  You can also review any relevant associated text in order to be certain they are eligible for re-coding.

There is also a search in this folder titled ‘SUMMARISE – New patient with incomplete vaccination history + not summarised’, which will capture new patients whose records have not yet been summarised, who are currently failing QOF V&I indicators, but for whom there is still time to complete missing immunisations.

As with the ‘Work to do’ folder, the ‘Review coding’ folder also contains a ‘More detail’ sub-folder containing the searches on which the data quality reports are based.

The searches are broken into the different age groups and should be used as follows:

1a. Not had 3x DTaP - had Diphtheria OR Tetanus OR Pertussis and 

2a. Not had MMR - had Measles OR Mumps OR Rubella

Both of these searches are particularly useful for ex-Vision practices whose vaccinations have come into EMIS as individual vaccines. These patients need the 6-in-1 or MMR vaccine adding to their records on the same date as the original 3 vaccines were coded. This can be done using the Ardens 'Childhood Immunisations' template. 

2b. MMR ?incorrect code

These are patients who have been coded with a combined MMR vaccine, but using a code which will not count towards QOF.  These patients need the original code deleting and replacing with the one which is in the Ardens 'Childhood Immunisations' template.

3a. Not had MMR x2 - had Measles OR Mumps OR Rubella

As with 2a above.

3b. MMR ?incorrect code

As with 2b above.

3c. DTaP booster ?incorrect code

These are patients who have been coded with a DTaP pre-school booster code which is not recognised by QOF.  These patients need the original code deleting and replacing with the one which is in the Ardens 'Childhood Immunisations' template.

To do this, locate and edit the original consultation. Launch the Ardens ‘Childhood Immunisations’ template via the 'Run Template' option.

Click on the Pre-school page and select the correct booster code (ignore the manufacturer details at this point, the original details will be recorded once the template is saved):

Save the template to return to the consultation.

Double click on the new coded entry to display the manufacturer details and enter the original information. 

Delete the original incorrect code (e.g.Low  dose, diphtheria, tetanus.......).

Save the consultation once complete.

3d. Not had DTaP booster - had Diphtheria OR Tetanus OR Pertussis

As 1a above.

4a - 4c Shingles

These searches will identify patients with non QOF vaccination, contraindication and declined codes. You should review these patients and record the appropriate QOF code to ensure the patients are picked up in achievement. 

Please note - the Ardens Childhood Immunisation Recall and Uptake Searches can help practices to manage the flow of patients to be recalled.  More information can be found here.

If you require any further assistance on the process above, please contact Ardens support on: [email protected]