Effect of Electronic Health Record Reminders for Routine Immunizations and Immunizations Needed for Chronic Medical Conditions

Background Immunization reminders in electronic health records (EHR) provide clinical decision support (CDS) that can reduce missed immunization opportunities. Little is known about using CDS rules from a regional immunization information system (IIS) to power local EHR immunization reminders. Objective This study aimed to assess the impact of EHR reminders using regional IIS CDS-provided rules on receipt of immunizations in a low-income, urban population for both routine immunizations and those recommended for patients with chronic medical conditions (CMCs). Methods We built an EHR-based immunization reminder using the open-source resource used by the New York City IIS in which we overlaid logic regarding immunizations needed for CMCs. Using a randomized cluster-cross-over pragmatic clinical trial in four academic-affiliated clinics, we compared captured immunization opportunities during patient visits when the reminder was "on" versus "off" for the primary immunization series, school-age boosters, and adolescents. We also assessed coverage of CMC-specific immunizations. Up-to-date immunization was measured by end of quarter. Rates were compared using chi square tests. Results Overall, 15,343 unique patients were seen for 26,647 visits. The alert significantly impacted captured opportunities to complete the primary series in both well-child and acute care visits (57.6% on vs. 54.3% off, p = 0.001, and 15.3% on vs. 10.1% off, p = 0.02, respectively), among most age groups, and several immunization types. Captured opportunities for CMC-specific immunizations remained low regardless of alert status. The alert did not have an effect on up-to-date immunization overall (89.1 vs. 88.3%). Conclusion CDS in this population improved captured immunization opportunities. Baseline high rates may have blunted an up-to-date population effect. Converting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) rules to generate sufficiently sensitive and specific alerts for CMC-specific immunizations proved challenging, and the alert did not have an impact on CMC-specific immunizations, potentially highlighting need for more work in this area.