The Future of Electronic Immunization Records

The Future of Electronic Immunization Records

Under the Immunization of School Pupils Act (ISPA), the provincial government tasks Public Health units to track and review immunization records for all students up to age 18 (E-Laws, 2018). The process of reviewing and updating student immunization records includes a component that results in a student being suspended from school if their immunization record is not complete after receiving notification from public health. Each year many parents are threatened with a school suspension for their child or their child is suspended even though the child is fully vaccinated. Parents incorrectly assume that physicians report their child’s immunizations to Public Health.

In September of 2017, the government at the time, amended the ISPA and added section 10 (2) requiring health care providers to report the immunizations they provide to public health (E-Laws, 2018). Unfortunately the government did not provide a method or a tool for health care providers to submit the required data. After hearing concerns from the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), the newly elected provincial government put a hold on the new legislation (CBC, 2018).

The problem lies with the electronic medical record software systems that health care providers use, these systems do not speak to the software that houses the provincial immunization repository. In his article “The Future of EMRs in Canada” Zhao highlights the importance of having a single platform that all required users have access to (Zhao, 2018). Unfortunately Ontario’s physicians use a number of different EMRs. None of these EMRs speak to each other or to the provincial system, leaving health care providers no easy method to report immunizations.

Doug Ford cabinet halts rule on reporting immunizations | CBC News. (2018, July 07). Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-vaccines-immunizations-reporting-doctors-nurses-1.4737196

E-Laws. (2018, November 19). Retrieved July 15, 2019, from https://www.ontario.ca/laws/view

Zhao, E. J. (2019). RE: The future of EMRs in Canada. Retrieved from http://www.cmaj.ca/content/re-future-emrs-canada