Impact of an EHR Reminder on HPV Vaccination
Impact of an EHR Reminder on HPV Vaccination
This study demonstrated that simply alerting patients and clinicians during an office appointment with females aged 9 to 26 years increases the uptake and completion of the HPV vaccine series. Another study of prompts for HPV vaccine was not just an intervention of EHR-generated alerts. The intervention included (1) HPV vaccine alerts, (2) a 1-hour presentation about the alerts and review of practice-based HPV vaccine rates, and (3) quarterly performance feedback about HPV vaccine rates. This intervention increased vaccination rates by 9, 8, and 13 percentage points for each HPV dose and accelerated vaccination by 151, 68, and 93 days, respectively. This was a much more resource-intense intervention compared with simply turning on a new vaccine alert. The prompted clinics had a 15-percentage point increase in HPV vaccine completion. The vaccine dosing was accelerated, on average, by 60, 30, and 70 days between doses 1 and 2, doses 2 and 3, and doses 1 and 3 compared with the unprompted clinics. Our less resource-intense intervention had similar improvements. All EHRs should have a functionality for vaccine alerts as a core component. Further refinements of this process need to be examined to push higher the uptake and timely completion of HPV vaccine. We also need to examine outreach that moves beyond the patient–clinician encounter and may have an even greater impact.
Conclusion
This study demonstrated that simply alerting patients and clinicians during an office appointment with females aged 9 to 26 years increases the uptake and completion of the HPV vaccine series. Another study of prompts for HPV vaccine was not just an intervention of EHR-generated alerts. The intervention included (1) HPV vaccine alerts, (2) a 1-hour presentation about the alerts and review of practice-based HPV vaccine rates, and (3) quarterly performance feedback about HPV vaccine rates. This intervention increased vaccination rates by 9, 8, and 13 percentage points for each HPV dose and accelerated vaccination by 151, 68, and 93 days, respectively. This was a much more resource-intense intervention compared with simply turning on a new vaccine alert. The prompted clinics had a 15-percentage point increase in HPV vaccine completion. The vaccine dosing was accelerated, on average, by 60, 30, and 70 days between doses 1 and 2, doses 2 and 3, and doses 1 and 3 compared with the unprompted clinics. Our less resource-intense intervention had similar improvements. All EHRs should have a functionality for vaccine alerts as a core component. Further refinements of this process need to be examined to push higher the uptake and timely completion of HPV vaccine. We also need to examine outreach that moves beyond the patient–clinician encounter and may have an even greater impact.
