Assessing the Immunization Information System and Electronic Health Record interface accuracy for COVID-19 vaccinations

<p><strong>Objective</strong></p> <p>Our objective is to assess the accuracy of the COVID-19 vaccination status within the Electronic Health Record for a panel of patients in a primary care practice when manual queries of the state immunization databases are required to access outside immunization records.</p> <p><strong>Results</strong></p> <p>A manual query of the local Immunization Information Systems for 4,114 adult patients with "unknown" vaccination status showed 44% of the patients were previously vaccinated. Attempts to assess the comprehensiveness of the Immunization Information Systems were hampered by incomplete documentation in the chart and poor response to patient outreach.</p> <p><strong>Conclusions </strong></p> <p>When the interface between the patient chart and the local Immunization Information System depends on a manual query for the transfer of data, the COVID-19 vaccination status for a panel of patients is often inaccurate.</p> <p>This study was reviewed by the University of Kansas Medical Center Institutional Review Board and was designated as a quality improvement project.</p>