MEDITECH Launches COVID-19 Vaccination EHR Solution

MEDITECH announced the launch of its COVID-19 Vaccination EHR solution, intending to streamline COVID-19 vaccine administration across health systems.

The web-based solution aims to help health systems increase vaccine distribution speed and mobility in areas across the country that are hit hardest by the pandemic, along with pop-up hospitals, the vendor noted.

"Time is essential in fighting COVID-19, and we recognize that immunizing as many people as possible is imperative,” Leah Farina, MEDITECH vice president of client services, said in a statement. “We developed the Quick Vaccination solution to streamline the process and enable care providers to efficiently administer the COVID-19 vaccine to their patients while meeting CDC guidelines."

Health IT professionals can integrate the solution directly into the EHR workflow and clinicians can access it through any menu that is chosen for integration. In order to mitigate clinician burden and expand the number of patients seen, the solution defaults to key vaccine and administration data. This default decreases EHR documentation for the clinician.

Following the vaccination, the solution generates a COVID-19 vaccination certificate. Per CDC guidelines, the certificate must include the manufacturer, the vaccination date, and the vaccination location. Once the patient schedules a second appointment, she must bring the certificate to ensure accurate patient matching and the correct second dosage. Following the second appointment, the solution will generate a second certificate to validate both doses.

With any EHR system or vaccine rollout effort, patient matching is crucial to patient safety. Those administering the vaccine must analyze patient data to deploy an effective and accurate vaccination strategy. Providers must know if a patient has received a vaccine to allow for a coordinated rollout.

Accurate patient matching ensures the correct patient will get the right vaccine and the patient will get the correct number of doses.

Furthermore, the solution is linked to the patient portal for handheld certificate access, scheduling, and alerts. Through the patient portal, the patient can be alerted on future appointment times and dates.

Once the patient completes the vaccination process, the solution automatically sends vital vaccine data to the respective state public health system for further analysis. These patient registries can identify patients who are eligible for the vaccine and it also shows which long-term facility residents have preexisting conditions.

The solution keeps track of patients who need a second vaccination and it can also alert the hospital staff of high-risk COVID-19 patients who may need further care.

According to a KLAS report, MEDITECH stepped up and exceeded expectations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the survey, KLAS researchers asked healthcare professionals to rate their vendor’s reaction and support during the coronavirus on a 9-point scale. Seventy-nine percent of respondents said their vendor generally exceeded expectations.

While Epic Systems and Cerner led the way, MEDITECH was right behind, scoring a 7.9. Its customers pointed to the vendor’s positive communication skills throughout the pandemic’s first wave.

“Most MEDITECH customers share glowing feedback about MEDITECH’s response to the crisis, including rapid communication and free-of-charge services or software,” wrote KLAS. “Best practices from the vendor also helped several customers navigate COVID-19 challenges.”

Respondents also reported several optimized EHR tools to aid users during the pandemic.

“MEDITECH has been very impactful,” said an anonymous MEDITECH client. “They were lightning fast in gathering, building, and rolling out all kinds of templates and order sets so that we could maximize our use of the system. The system has tools for surveillance, monitoring, registries, and order sets. MEDITECH pulled together a SWAT team and did a fantastic job.”