The impact of electronic health record (EHR) interoperability on immunization information system (IIS) data quality

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of electronic health record (EHR) interoperability on the quality of immunization data in the North Dakota Immunization Information System (NDIIS). Methods: NDIIS doses administered data was evaluated for completeness of the patient and dose-level core data elements for records that belong to interoperable and non-interoperable providers. Data was compared at three months prior to electronic health record (EHR) interoperability enhancement to data at three, six, nine and twelve months post-enhancement following the interoperability go live date. Doses administered per month and by age group, timeliness of vaccine entry and the number of duplicate clients added to the NDIIS was also compared, in addition to, immunization rates for children 19 – 35 months of age and adolescents 11 – 18 years of age. Results: Doses administered by both interoperable and non-interoperable providers remained fairly consistent from pre-enhancement through twelve months post-enhancement. Comparing immunization rates for infants and adolescents, interoperable providers had higher rates both pre- and post-enhancement than non-interoperable providers for all vaccines and vaccine series assessed. The overall percentage of doses entered into the NDIIS within one month of administration varied slightly between interoperable and non-interoperable providers; however, there were significant changes between the percentage of doses entered within one day and within one week with the percentage entered within one day increasing and within one week decreasing with interoperability. The number of duplicate client records created by interoperable providers increased from 94 duplicates pre-enhancement to 10,552 at twelve months post-enhancement, while the duplicates from non-interoperable providers only increased from 300 to 637 over the same period. Of the 40 core data elements in the NDIIS, there was some difference in completeness between the interoperable versus non-interoperable providers. Only middle name, sex, county, phone number, mother’s maiden name, vaccine manufacturer, lot number and expiration date were significantly (>=5%) different between the two provider groups. Conclusions: Interoperability with provider EHRs has had an impact on NDIIS data quality. Timeliness of data entry has improved and overall doses administered have remained fairly consistent, as have the immunization rates for the providers assessed. There are more technical and non-technical interventions that will need to be accomplished by NDIIS staff and vendor to help reduce the negative impact of duplicate record creation, as well as, data completeness.