Florida SHOTS™: Keeping SHOTS in Check

The Florida Bureau of Immunization has developed webinar modules available for free continuing education credits through Suwannee River AHEC. The three modules are derived from Immunization: A Dose of Reality, the Florida Bureau of Immunization’s captivating documentary about vaccinations in today’s society.

The webinar series fulfills continuing education credits for a variety of healthcare providers, such as the Florida Board of Nursing, the Florida Board of Social Work, licensed mental health counselors, and physicians. Each learning module is approved for .5 credits with a total of 1.5 credits if all three modules are viewed and post-test/evaluations are submitted with a passing score of 85% or greater.

The webinar series can be accessed through the Florida Bureau of Immunization’s website or Suwannee River AHEC’s website.

In December, Florida SHOTS released an update to the system that included changes to personnel lists. Personnel lists changes apply to all system accounts:

VFC Participants

• All VFC personnel are not included in the Florida SHOTS personnel lists.
• Going forwards any personnel updates must be made in the Florida SHOTS system.

Changing Enrollee Contacts

• Changes to the Florida SHOTS enrollees will now have to be done through the Florida SHOTS help desk at (877-888-SHOT).
• Changes to VFC enrollees will continue to be done through the VFC help desk (800-483-2543).
• Help desk personnel are available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. ET.
• Each site’s designated Florida SHOTS account administrator can still make all other personnel list changes.

Adding Personnel

• When you add personnel, the system will check for a duplicate record for that staff member.
• If a record already exists the system administrator should update the record that already exists.

List Cleanup

• Our staff has obsoleted all records in which there was an end date listed for personnel.
• If your local site administrator was obsoleted, contact the help desk (877-888-SHOT) Monday - Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. to set up a new site administrator.

In the spirit of the approaching New Year, here are some resolutions that might help your practice become more efficient in 2012.
1. For data uploaders: Resolve to upload vaccination records every day.
2. For manual entry accounts: Resolve to enter records into Florida SHOTS after ever patient visit.
3. Resolve to electronically certify all vaccination records.
4. Resolve to give parents access to the SHOTS Record Retriever.

Now that you know how to get set-up with Florida SHOTS data upload, what should you do if you need to print a D.H. 680 before your past shot records have been added to the system?

Depending on how often you choose to upload data to the registry, your latest shot information may not yet be in the system for a patient you’ve seen that day. If patients need shot records right away, you can manually enter those and print a complete D.H. 680, or you can print a D.H. 680 with historical shots that are in the patients’ records and write in the missing shots.

Yes. We have worked successfully with many software companies to build data upload links. Call Diane McLeod, Florida SHOTS Technology Field Rep at 877-888-SHOT (7468) extension 4, or email Diane_McLeod@doh.state.fl.us so she can contact your software company with your request. Being able to contact software companies with the names of specific doctor’s offices that are asking for their data upload link is the strongest leverage we have in getting them to agree to create the linkage and move up our priority in their development.