Childhood Immunisations

Before you begin

Registered nurses can perform immunisations on behalf of a practitioner. The Provider Number of the practitioner is then used to transmit data to Australian Immunisation Register (AIR), and the AIR notification payment is forwarded to the practitioner (whom the nurse is performing the immunisation on behalf of).

Nurses can register as Ancillary Immunisation Providers for AIR purposes only (i.e. reporting vaccinations given to children), as in the case of a nurse who is performing immunisations in a remote location without a registered Medicare provider. The nurse needs to complete the 'Application to register as an immunisation provider' form and send it to their State or Territory Health Department for approval. The bank account details for the AIR notification payment are also completed on this form.

When the approved form is received by Medicare, a unique identification number (Ancillary Provider Number) is allocated to identify the ancillary provider and the bank account details are processed onto the AIR for future AIR payments. The ancillary provider number is only recognised for the purpose of sending immunisation data to the AIR and is not linked in any way to MBS item numbers.

Procedure

To maintain childhood (patient <20 years of age) immunisations:
  1. From the patient's Clinical Window, select the Imm. tab.
  2. To add an immunisation record, either:
    • Click the Add icon on the toolbar
    • Press the F3 key
    • Right-click in the list of immunisations (even if the list is empty) and select New Item
  3. The National Immunisation Program Schedule window displays a record of the patient's immunisation history.
    • A green arrow indicates that the patient's schedule is up-to-date for the specified age range. A red arrow indicates their schedule it not up-to-date.
    • Past immunisations appear as plain text entries. Click to display further information about the vaccination.
    • Immunisations recorded for the current visit, but not yet saved, are seleted and can be edited until the immunisation record is saved.
    • Where vaccines have yet to be administered, as indicated by an empty check box or a green cross .
  4. To record a vaccination, click Add for a particular age-vaccine combination
  5. To record combination vaccines, in the Combo column, click Add.
  6. To view information about Catch-Up doses, click Catch-up Doses.
    This information has been prepared from the Australian Immunisation Handbook and State schedules as amended from time to time. Catch up dosing is complex and is not automated in MedicalDirector Clinical. Should patients require catch-up doses, you are advised to consult the Australian Immunisation Handbook. An Immunisation Catch-Up Calculator is also available from the SA Health web site to assist with determination of catch up schedules. MedicalDirector cannot guarantee the accuracy of material on the SA Health web site.
  7. To record detailed information such as batch numbers for any vaccines you have administered during the current visit, click Enter another type of vacciantion. These batch numbers must be recorded before the data is saved.
  8. (Optional) Indicate whether the vaccine was administered elsewhere. This sets the Vaccinator drop-down list to 'Given Elsewhere'. The 'Vaccinator' and 'Consent provided by' fields remain disabled.
  9. If if don't want this immunisation uploaded to the AIR, deselect Send to AIR.
  10. Select the vaccinator from the drop-down list.
  11. Indicate who gave consent for the vaccination.
  12. Enter the date on which the immunisation was administered.
  13. Select the type of immunisation from the list provided.
  14. Select the site at which the vaccination was administered.
  15. Enter the Sequence, Batch Number and any comments (if necessary). Note that in the example above we have enforced AIR batch number validation (via Advanced Link Options) and therefore batch numbers must contain only alpha-numeric characters (no spaces or punctuation).
  16. (Optional) Record a Recall for the patient. By clicking Add Recall you can record an immunisations Recall notification for the patient. To use this feature you must have an immunisation selected.

Results

Provided certain conditions have been met, an Immunisation Handout will be printed automatically upon recording the vaccination.