Background and context

In response to requests, Ardens have developed a suite of invite searches to support those practices that wish to identify those patients eligible for:

  • COVID and Flu
  • Just Flu
  • Just COVID

 

This suite is in addition to the main 'Vaccinations - Flu' and 'Vaccinations - COVID' suites and has been built primarily to support practices in managing clinics for single or multiple vaccine administration. Feedback has led us to understand that this will particularly help those practices who are  wanting to invite patients via an Accubook link.  

 

IMPORTANT: The eligibility as defined in the Green Book for seasonal influenza and COVID-19 vaccines is similar but not identical. This has resulted in differences between the underlying code-sets which are used in the Ardens reports for both. This means that whilst you may think some patients should be included in both the seasonal influenza and COVID-19 invitation reports, some patients might just be included in the seasonal influenza invitation reports but not the COVID-19 invitations reports, and vice versa. Note also that patients are not included if they cannot have the vaccine now, e.g. patients may not show eligible for COVID vaccine if they had their spring booster within the last 91 days.

 

Accessing the searches

To access the searches, navigate to the Population Reporting module > Ardens Searches > 3.16 Vaccinations - Flu + COVID (Ardens) folder. The search folder is broken down by the following sub folders: 


 

It is important to note that when running these searches, we advise them to be run with a relative run date of when the clinics are to be held, so that they capture patients of the correct age group. This is important, especially for the COVID Vaccine guidelines which advise that patients 65 and over should be vaccinated. By running the searches on the date of your planned clinic, you will then be sure to capture those patients. For further information about how to run searches using a relative run date, please see this support article   

 

The searches are broken down into those patients eligible for Flu & COVID vaccines who are not housebound or in a care home and then those that are eligible who are housebound or in a care home. Each folder then contains the same set of searches and reports as follows: 


 

 

The first search will capture all patients eligible for both COVID and Flu, who have not yet been vaccinated, not declined or are contraindicated from either of the  vaccines. The searches are based on the eligibility criteria according to the Green Book Guidance  

Please Note. The searches will NOT exclude patients who have already a flu or COVID invite. 

 

The report will then need to be used to see the patients captured in the search. To view the report, select the 'View Results' icon on the ribbon. They will also capture data of the patients latest flu and/or COVID invitations: 


 

We highly recommend that you then export this report to CSV file format so that those patients who have already had an invitation can be excluded from the report. 

You may also, at this stage, want to consider filtering the CSV file into age groups for invite purposes. Please see this support article  which explains fully how to export a report to CSV file format and use filtering and sorting functionality. 

 

The second search will capture patients who are only eligible for the COVID vaccine. Again, they will exclude patients who have declined or are contraindicated. The report will show details as the first report and again should be exported to CSV file format for use. 

 

The third search will capture patients who are only eligible for the Flu vaccine. They work exactly the same as the above first and second searches and the report works in the same way. 

 

Please note. The COVID guidance advises that vaccinations against COVID-19 is started from 3rd October 2024, therefore you may want to consider using the usual Ardens suite of flu invites for the cohort of patients eligible for flu from September 1st. You could then consider using these searches for all other patients from 3rd October. 

 

Checking eligibility

If it is unclear why a patient has been included in a search, you can use the 'check patient' function within these searches. To access the 'base search' which will tell you what 'clinical risk category' the patient falls into can be found here - please use the searches with * initially:

 

COVID:


 

Flu: 


 

Once you know which group the patient is in, you can check patient against that individual search and it will show you the code.

 

September flu clinics    

We advise that you continue to use the main 'Vaccinations - Flu' suite to invite your patients for the September clinics.