Florida SHOTS™: Keeping SHOTS in Check

Seeing double? When you search for a patient in Florida SHOTS do you find two or more records? Don’t despair over which is the right one.

First, make sure that both records belong to the same patient. There are more than 100 million shots for nearly nine million patient records in Florida SHOTS and many people have similarly spelled names. Verify that the address, parents, and vaccination records mirror or closely resemble either each other or what you have in your charts.

Once you have determined that the records are indeed duplicates and not for two different patients, contact the Florida SHOTS help desk at 877-888-SHOT and our staff will help merge the records without losing vital shot information.

Dr. Anne Schuchat, Director NCIRD, CDC; Sherry Riddick, President AIRA; Mara Ohrt (Alaska); Amy Metroka and Dr. Jane Zucker (NYC); Susan Lincicome, Director Florida SHOTS; and Charles Alexander, Bureau Chief of Florida Bureau of Immunization.

The American Immunization Registry Association (AIRA) awarded Florida SHOTS with the 2009 AIRA Center of Excellence (COE) Award during the opening plenary of the 44th National Immunization Conference (NIC) in April. The criteria for this year’s award centered on data reporting, vaccine management and provider participation in immunization information systems (IIS) during the H1N1 2009 influenza epidemic.

Rising to the Challenge
The Florida Department of Health needed to be able to rapidly order and distribute a projected 15 million doses of H1N1 vaccine to an estimated 8,100 ship-to sites. Florida’s IIS, Florida SHOTS, was identified as the only statewide system with the capability to accomplish real-time allocation and ordering of the H1N1 vaccine. By adapting the Florida SHOTS system, we were able to efficiently and quickly use the registry to accomplish these ordering and distribution tasks.

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When you search for a patient in Florida SHOTS do you find two or more records? Don’t despair over which is the right one.

First, make sure that both records belong to the same patient. There are nearly ninety million shots from nearly nine million patient records in Florida SHOTS and many people have similarly spelled names. Verify that the address, parents, and vaccination record mirror or closely resembles either each other or what you have in your charts.

Once you have determined that the records are indeed duplicates and not for two different patients, contact the Florida SHOTS help desk and our staff will help merge the records without losing vital shot information. If you have found several duplicate (or triplicate!) records, please send a fax with a confidential cover sheet to the Immunization Support team at 850-921-1898. Be sure to include the first and last name of the patient, date of birth, and their gender. Don’t forget your name, the name of your practice, and a number where you can be reached in case the team has any questions.