Abstract
Objective
To assess among US pediatricians' systems for tracking vaccine administration and
inventory and attitudes about these systems; and attitudes regarding and perceived
barriers to adoption of a 2-dimensional bar code systems.
Methods
Internet and mail survey of a nationally representative network of pediatricians between
September 2011 and January 2012.
Results
The response rate was 71% (288 of 408). The most common methods for recording vaccine
information were manual entry into an electronic (52%) or paper (27%) record; 76%
recorded information in ≥2 places. Physicians reported ordering vaccine on the basis
of seasonal increases in demand (55%), paper-based inventory (52%), or when stock
looks low (47%); 79% reported it was time consuming to track inventory and 24% reported
their practices frequently run out of vaccines. Among those participating in an immunization
information system, 29% transmitted data by automatic uploads and 58% entered data
manually. Physicians agreed that bar codes could facilitate tracking of vaccine inventory
(96%), would improve patient safety (96%), would be more reliable and accurate than
current systems (93%), and could improve the efficiency of vaccine administration
(90%). Barriers to adoption of a bar code system included need for software (52%),
information technology support (42%), and computer equipment (33%). The total cost
at which >50% reported they would definitely or probably adopt a bar code system was
between $1000 and $4999.
Conclusions
Most pediatricians report using inefficient systems for tracking vaccine administration
and inventory and recognize multiple potential benefits of incorporating vaccine bar
coding into their practice. To facilitate adoption, costs will need to be contained
and technological barriers addressed.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: October 29, 2015
Accepted:
April 30,
2015
Received:
November 7,
2014
Footnotes
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc.
