CU I&E Submission: Improved Efficiency in Immunization Compliance Management

The UCCS Wellness Center is responsible for managing state immunization compliance requirements for the University. UCCS does not have a dedicated immunization department; and this task is managed by the front office staff along with their primary duties. In spite of having limited resources, our student immunization compliance rate has consistently been above 93%, one of the highest in the state compared to other Colorado colleges and universities.

Traditionally, immunization compliance management involved Wellness Center staff collecting copies of student immunization records through a multitude of mechanisms, including attending new student orientations, fax and email. Required immunization dates were then taken from these records and manually entered by Wellness Center staff into the CU Student Information System (CU-SIS) and original documents were shredded.

A new process leveraging our Electronic Medical Record software, Medicat, allows students to upload their official immunization records and enter the required MMR and Meningococcal immunization dates directly into the online patient portal. These records are then available in the Immunization Compliance Manager module of Medicat where office staff verify records and send students confirmation messages through Medicat secure messaging.

This change has resulted in significant savings in time and resources while providing improved customer service to students.

Time savings:

• Wellness Center staff no longer need to attend transfer orientations to collect records – savings of approximately 40 work hours/year.
• Fewer staff are needed to attend freshman orientations – savings of approximately 48 work hours/year.
• Faster records processing resulting in 50% reduction in administrative effort.

Resource savings:

• Drastically reduced paper waste – more than 5000 paper records per year eliminated.
• Reduced wear and tear on office machines - fewer faxes and printing and no need to shred paper records.
• Reduced staff coordination – former process required multiple individuals sharing responsibility.

Benefit for students:

• Faster, more convenient process for submitting records.
• Original documents are now available in electronic health record.
• Immunization record is accessible to medical providers.
• Direct communication to students regarding their immunization compliance.

This process change was implemented during the spring of 2018. We set up the patient portal to allow students to upload their own records. This required coordination with the Orientation Office and Office of Information Technology to communicate the new process to incoming students and give them access to the system when they registered for orientation. We have also expanded the functionality of the patient portal to allow students to complete forms online and schedule some online appointments. We worked with our Marketing department to create materials to communicate the benefits of the portal to students.

Eventually we will pull all state required reporting data from Medicat and no longer need data from CU-SIS.

We also plan to continue to expand our use of the patient portal to include more online scheduling and increased communication through secure messaging between students and providers.