NHS-built system supports hospitals with vaccine rollout

A bespoke system built by NHS Arden & GEM Commissioning Support Unit is supporting over 400 sites to deliver the coronavirus vaccination programme.

The National Immunisation and Vaccination System (NIVS) enables data to be captured at the point of delivery by hospital and mass vaccination sites as they vaccinate health and social care workers and priority groups of patients identified by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

The web-based application, which went live at the beginning of December, has already captured 1.77 million coronavirus vaccination events in these settings. 

NIVS enables real time input on an individual basis to help ensure patient safety and data quality. The solution uses the NHS number to automatically access an individual’s vaccination history with vaccinators guided through a clinical decision support process to ensure the intended recipient is suitable for the vaccine. The system captures batch information, by vaccine type and manufacturer, along with any necessary expiry dates or defrost expiry dates and can also be used to ensure that patients are receiving both vaccine doses within specified timeframes.

For healthcare workers, the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) number is recorded to allow NHS trusts to quickly and easily monitor vaccine take-up among their employees. 

Validated and consolidated data is submitted to NHS Digital on a daily basis to automatically update GP records alongside informing ministerial reviews, service management, and ‘call and recall’ processes. Live reporting is available as a home screen dashboard within NIVS which allows users to see numbers vaccinated in the current day, the previous day and a running total, by key cohorts.

The system was originally developed to capture administered vaccinations under the flu immunisation programme but with capability built-in to extend to the coronavirus vaccination programme.

Ayub Bhayat, Chief Data Officer at Arden & GEM said: “By working in close partnership with the programme team and hospital hubs, we have been able to rapidly mobilise this web-based application for use in the Covid-19 vaccination programme. NIVS has been through a robust assurance process which has included clinical safety and information governance approval. Crucially, the system has also been tested in a live clinical environment as part of the flu vaccination programme, recording more than 3.2 million flu vaccination events to date.”

David Walliker, Chief Digital and Partnerships Officer at Oxford University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “Delivering Covid-19 vaccinations is a huge challenge for everyone involved. Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are very appreciative to the team at NHS Arden & GEM CSU for building the NIVS solution, which works very well, in rapid time and for evolving this solution with us to meet our needs. This is a notable success story for an NHS developed agile solution.”