To support practices with the RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) immunisation programme, Ardens has created a suite of useful searches to assist with invitations and monitoring. The Ardens resources have also been updated to include template entries (via the Adult Immunisations template). There is a RSV vaccination administration protocol, and also a RSV Vaccine Eligibility Alert, as well as a protocol reminder to issue the medication after recording a RSV vaccination code.
The RSV programme became effective from 1/9/2024, and eligible patients should not have been vaccinated before this date.
The programme offers a single dose of RSV vaccination to protect both newborns and seniors against severe respiratory disease.
Specifically, the patients who will be offered the RSV vaccination in the first year of the programme are:
- patients turning 75 years after 1/9/2024 ('routine' cohort)
- patients already aged 75-79 years after 1/9/2024 ('catch up' cohort)
- patients who are aged 79 years on 1/9/2024 and who will have their 80th birthday between then and 31/8/2025 ('catch up' cohort)
- pregnant patients who are at least 28 weeks pregnant
Government guidance for the older age groups advises that in order to give them the earliest protection against RSV disease, they should be vaccinated as soon as possible after the catch up campaign commences (1/9/2024).
Further information about the RSV Vaccination programme can be found in the Green Book Chapter 27a. Information for healthcare practitioners for both the older adults and for pregnant women for infant protection, can be found on the Government website.
Also of note is the advice on the Government website regarding co-administration of RSV with other vaccines.
The Ardens searches can be found by navigating to Population Reporting > Ardens searches, and then locating folder 3.24 Vaccinations – RSV.
INVITATION CODES: Until mid-February 2025 there were no available RSV invitation codes, and the recommendation had been to use the 'Initial patient call' code (Concept ID: 18553900) with descriptive text to show it as an RSV vaccination invitation.
Two invitation codes are now available, and these are:
Please note: There is no need to recode. The Ardens searches will capture the 'Initial patient call' code up to the end of this QOF year, i.e. to 31st March 2025 only.
There is also a new RSV declined code, which has been added to the RSV page in the Adult Immunisations template:
The updated Ardens RSV searches (v1.9) were released on 21/2/25. They have been updated to take account of the new invitation and declined codes. They will be automatically updated in your EMIS system on your next scheduled update. However, if you wish to have them sooner, you can manually download folder 3.24 folder from the Ardens Portal and import into your EMIS system.
On opening the main folder, you will see that there are sub-folders for invite searches and for overview searches.
The Invite (RSV + Shingles OR Pneumo) folder contains reports to highlight patients that are due a first or second shingles and pneumococcal vaccine, in additional to RSV. This will help practices who wish to schedule all three vaccinations together.
The Invite (RSV) sub-folders of reports are explained as follows:
The Age 75-79y + due RSV vac before 80th birthday reports capture patients aged 75 to 79 years on 1/9/2024 who should receive the RSV vaccination before they reach 80 years old.
The Age 79-80y + due RSV vac before 31.08.25 reports find those patients currently in the eligible age range and who will turn the age of 80 between 2/9/2024 and 31/8/2025. You may wish to prioritise these patients early in the programme to give them greater protection over the winter months.
The Housebound/Care Home + due RSV vac report captures those patients who will need to be visited rather than invited.
The Pregnant + due RSV vac at 28 weeks reports will identify pregnant patients who may be eligible for an RSV vaccination and for either a first or second invitation. The report shows the most recent recorded pregnant code, as well as the estimated date of delivery, if recorded. It is not possible for the EMIS system to calculate when a pregnant patient reaches the eligible point of 28 weeks, but having the latest EDD on the report will help the practice to calculate when eligibility has been reached for the RSV vaccination. You may find, however, that these patients are offered RSV vaccination during routine midwife appointments. Please see important note below about pregnant patients before starting to invite this group.
Please note: A patient will be excluded from the recall process only if they have been coded with any of the following:
- Administration of RSV vaccination
- RSV vaccination contraindicated
- RSV vaccination declined
Please also note the following:
- patients should not be vaccinated before they enter the specified programme age range, or become the specified number of weeks pregnant. So a patient who reaches their 75th birthday on the 1st December can only be vaccinated from that date, and a patient who is 20 weeks pregnant at the start of the programme should not be vaccinated until she reaches at least 28 weeks of pregnancy.
All of the RSV Invite folders contain a full call and recall suite of searches based on the new invitation coding, so you can easily locate those patients requiring a first or second invitation, or those who have already had two invitations, such as for the 75-79 age group below:
The Invite reports separate the eligible patients into those who can be sent a text, those who can receive an email, and those who will need a postal invitation:
We suggest that you run the Invite (RSV) folder as a whole, so that the sub-folder of searches on which the reports are based are also run and updated.
Should I run the searches as of today's date, or with a relative run date?
We suggest that you run the Invite searches with a relative run date of the date you plan to run your RSV clinic. This will ensure that you are inviting patients who will not yet have reached 80 years on that date. If you are unsure how to use a relative run date, please read this support article.
If you do not have a clinic date, you can run the searches as of today's date, BUT, you must be aware that by the time patients are invited and respond, some of them may have turned 80 years and will therefore no longer be eligible.
Once the searches have been run, you will see the results of the reports displayed in the Population Count column against each report.
Exporting data to an Excel spreadsheet
You may wish to sort and/or filter this information from the reports, for example to list the patients in these reports by age or by date of birth.
To do this select each report in turn and click View Results on the ribbon. The report will be displayed on the screen. Next, select Export from the ribbon, and then choose the Export format of CSV and click OK. Choose a location to store this report outside of the clinical system, and then select Save.
Navigate to where you have stored the report and open the file. Select rows 1 to 8 using the row numbers on the left, and delete these rows as they are not needed for sorting and filtering. Next press Ctrl and A on your keyboard to select all, and then select the Data tab. Locate and select the Sort option from the Data tab.
This will open up a Sort box, on which you choose which column you wish to sort by from the drop down list. For example, if Age is listed in column P, select this from the dropdown list on the left, and then select the Order, either Smallest to Largest or vice versa, again from the dropdown list on the right.
Select OK, and the list of patients will now be sorted accordingly, such as with the youngest patient at the top of the list and the oldest at the bottom. You can perform a similar sorting function with any of the other columns such Date of Birth, Family Name, or EMIS Number.
You may find this support article helpful – it includes a short video which shows you how to export information from your EMIS system and then filter the data in Excel, to show for example mobile phone, email addresses, particular conditions or age.
The Overview searches are separated into the two main cohorts: Aged >=79y today and <80y on 1/9/2024 and Pregnant.
For each cohort, the first sub-search captures patients who are due an RSV vaccination because they have not had it already, or they have not declined the vaccine, or they have not been coded with a contraindication to the RSV vaccination.
For the 75-79 year age group, as patients are vaccinated, you should expect the results in the 'Due' search to reduce to almost zero, due to patients entering the cohort on reaching their 75th birthday. However, the 'Due: Pregnant...' search will never reduce to zero as its parent search includes ALL pregnant patients, including those who are not (as yet) eligible.
There are then three information searches for each of the two cohorts, giving you lists of patients who have been vaccinated, patients who are contraindicated, and patients who have declined.
In the zSubreports folder, you will find the searches on which the Invite (RSV) and also the Invite (RSV + Shingles OR Pneumo) searches are based, as well as searches to identify patient communication patient preferences:
Also included here in the RSV Searches folder are the following searches and reports:
The INFO excluded as RSV vac contraindication code + age 75-80y report lists patients who have a contraindication code for RSV on their record. This report is mainly for information only.
The INFO excluded as RSV vac contraindication code + pregnant report captures, for information purposes, pregnant patients who have been coded as having either an adverse reaction or a contraindication to the RSV vaccination.
IMPORTANT NOTES REGARDING PREGNANT PATIENTS:
Before inviting the pregnant patient cohort, we recommend you run the 'INFO - Currently coded as pregnant search which you can find in folder 1.30 Administration - Misc > Info - Pregnancy folder. You can then use the report to determine the current pregnancy status of each patient prior to sending out RSV invitations. If they are not currently pregnant, they can be coded with a pregnancy outcome code.
Ardens Adult Immunisation Template
You can use the Ardens Adult Immunisations template which has been updated to enable the recording of RSV vaccination, consent, contraindication, declines and aftercare information given.
Important note regarding CQRS claims:
In order for the RSV vaccination to be correctly included in the CQRS extract, administration of the vaccine must be recorded as GMS.
Ardens has also provided an RSV Vaccination Administration protocol. This is designed to be added to the F12 Protocol Launcher and used to record the administration of the vaccination in clinic. This works very much like the Flu Vaccination Administration Protocol and will need to be edited for batch numbers etc. When run, the protocol allows you to record a contraindication or a decline, or alternatively you can record eligibility and consent and proceed to record the vaccination details.
To alert practice staff to eligibility, Ardens has also produced the RSV Vaccine Eligibility Alert. This is a medium priority pink box alert that will show if the patient's age determines their eligibility for the RSV vaccination, or that the patient may be pregnant and therefore may be eligible for the RSV vaccine.
You can double click on the pink box alert to access a template that allows you to record administration of the vaccine.
If you require any further assistance on the process above, please contact Ardens support on: