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Impact of Electronic Reminders for HepB Vaccine

Vaccine; ePub 2018 Jun 27; Hechter, et al

Publish date:: August 25, 2018

Implementation of electronic provider reminders is highly effective in increasing both hepatitis B (HepB) vaccine initiation and series completion rates among adults with diabetes, a recent study found. The observational cohort study assessed the impact of implementing electronic provider reminders on HepB vaccine initiation and 3-dose series completion rates among insured adults with diabetes aged 19 to 59 years. Difference-in-difference (DID) analyses compared changes in vaccine initiation and completion rates during 12 months pre- and post-implementation between intervention and control sites. Researchers examined trends in vaccine initiation and completion rates by plotting monthly rates during the study period. They found:

Initiation rate rose after implementation of first-dose reminder at intervention site.
Completion rate rose after introduction of all-dose alert at intervention site.
The coverage increased significantly at the intervention site while it remained low at the control site.

Citation:

Hechter RC, Qian L, Luo Y, et al. Impact of an electronic medical record reminder on hepatitis B vaccine initiation and completion rates among insured adults with diabetes mellitus. [Published online ahead of print June 27, 2018]. Vaccine. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2018.06.035.

Commentary:

The hepatitis-B vaccine has been one of our most successful immunization programs. It has been effective in decreasing the rate of acute hepatitis-B infections in the United States as well as decreasing the rate of hepatocellular carcinoma. For children and adolescents, schools play a large part in helping with the completion of the hepatitis-B series. For programs that target hepatitis-B vaccination in adults, most have a rate of a completed series below 30%. Using electronic medical records, this study showed that reminders sent through the EMR increased the rate of completion of this series. Since most of our primary care offices now have an EMR in place, this should be one of the many tools that we use to try to help our patients take advantage of the protections that these vaccines offer. —John Russell, MD

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