On October 3, Ohio Academy of Family Physicians Executive Vice President Ann Spicer and Lobbyist David Paragas, JD, joined other physician organizations at a stakeholders meeting about immunization rates. The meeting was called by Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Medical Director Mary DiOrio, MD, in accordance with provisions of House Bill 394 (130th Ohio General Assembly) that directed ODH to explore the feasibility of mandating that all immunizations be reported to the state’s immunization registry (IMPACT SISS). ODH is analyzing and will be reporting its findings to the Ohio General Assembly in December 2016.
In the last year, 10 million immunization records on 3.5 million Ohioans have been loaded into the IMPACT SISS system. According to ODH, approximately 2,600 ambulatory practices, 1,100 pharmacies, 100 public health departments, 100 hospitals, and 110 federally-qualified health centers are reporting to IMPACT SISS now.
ODH informed attendees that they will be launching a new platform for the immunization registry before the end of the calendar year (2016). They expect that platform to improve the registry’s current capacity and functionality.
The OAFP expressed that in order for a mandate to be feasible to implement, the physician’s electronic medical record (EMR) would have to integrate seamlessly into the state immunization registry and anything less than that would create an administrative burden on practices as reporting would require double-entry of records. Any cost to make any needed adjustments to an EMR to make it operate seamlessly should be assumed by the state and not the individual practice or physician.
The number of mandates and the resulting extent of the administrative burden on practices were themes throughout the meeting.
The OAFP appreciates being asked for feedback and input as ODH fulfills its statutory requirements to accurately explore the feasibility of mandatory reporting to the state immunization registry.