Seasonal flu activity is on the rise and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has resources available for healthcare providers and patients from prevention to treatment.  Access them HERE.

Beginning January 2020, the Immunization Section's VFC Annual Provider Staff Training will consist of CDC's "You Call the Shots” interactive, web-based training courses. The completion of two courses is required. Titles of the required courses are: Vaccines for Children (VFC) and Vaccine Storage and Handling.

Remember, the VFC enrollee, primary VFC coordinator and the back-up coordinator must complete the VFC annual provider training prior to annual reenrollment or before your next scheduled VFC compliance site visit, whichever comes first.

Beginning January 2020, the enrollee and coordinators must access the two training courses, noted above, at https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/ed/youcalltheshots.html. After completing each course, you will need to login or create a new account on Training and Continuing Education Online (TCEO) at www.cdc.gov/GetCE.

To receive a certificate of completion for each course and receive continuing education, as applicable, you will need to complete the following steps. After you login or create a new account on TCEO:

• Visit "Search Courses” to find the courses you completed.
• Scroll down and click on the title of the course.
• Review the information on the "Course Summary” page and click "Continue.”
• Choose the type of continuing education you'd like to earn. Select CEU to receive a certificate when you do not need continuing education.
• On the "My Activities” page under "Pending CE”, click on the course "Evaluation” and complete it. The posttest is not available to complete until you complete the evaluation
• On the "My Activities” page under "Pending CE”, click on the "Posttest” and complete it. If you don't pass the posttest, you will have one opportunity to retake it.
• On the "My Activities” page, visit the "Completed CE” section to download your certificate. You can also visit the "Transcripts & Certificates” page to download your certificate or transcripts.

Email your certificates to [email protected] with the VFC PIN in the subject line. Certificates can be sent any time prior to annual reenrollment. Your Immunization Section Field Staff will request to see your certificates during your VFC compliance site visit.

If you have specific questions related to the VFC Annual Provider Staff Training requirement, please contact Tracey Wyche at 850-901-6776 or via email at [email protected].

Each organization enrolled with Florida SHOTS has at least one Local Organization Administrator (LOA) to manage their account. With the start of a new year, it's a great time for each LOA to ensure their Florida SHOTS account is up-to-date! During this webinar, we will review the feature of unlocking a patient record, managing your Personnel List (adding/ending user access) and setting Vaccines for Children (VFC) permissions.

Click below to register!

Thursday, January 9, 12:30pm

Wednesday, January 15, 12:30pm*Spanish

Wednesday, January 22, 12:00pm

Healthcare provider personnel who are designated Florida SHOTS "Local Org Administrators" can now register for Meaningful Use Stage 3 within Florida SHOTS. Providers attesting for MU Stage 3 must demonstrate bi-directional exchange with query/response (QBP/RSP message) capability as well as the submission of VXU messages consistent with CDC's 2.5.1 release 1.5 version of the HL7 Implementation Guide for immunization messaging.

Complete the steps that follow to register for Meaningful Use Stage 3 within Florida SHOTS. You must register for Stage 3 even if you have previously registered for Meaningful Use Stage 1 or Stage 2.

• Step 1: Log in to your Florida SHOTS account.
• Step 2: Select “Meaningful Use” from the Florida SHOTS menu.
• Step 3: Select "Stage 3" from the menu.
• Step 4: Follow steps 1 through 5 listed on the “Meaningful Use Stage 3 – Registration of Intent” page.
• Step 5: Fill in the required blue fields on the “Registration of Intent” form and click “Submit.”

With holidays approaching, please note that the Florida SHOTS Help Desk will be unavailable during the dates below.
 

Christmas: 12/24/19 and 12/25/19
New Year’s Day: 12/31/19 and 1/1/20

If your office participates in data upload from your EHR, it’s important to frequently monitor your data to ensure that the vaccine records are uploading properly into Florida SHOTS. Don’t know where to begin to check for errors and warnings? We’re here to help!

A personalized analysis can be completed and includes:

• Full review of your data in the registry using the Data Quality Tool
• Review of immunization codes within your software
• Review of all rejections, warnings, and accepted data
• Patient chart review to look for discrepancies in documentation between the patient’s chart, EHR, and data reported to Florida SHOTS

If you would like a thorough data quality analysis, contact our data quality specialist, Gretchen, at (786) 271-6453, or [email protected].