Empower Staff and
Improve Efficiency
- Who is targeted to receive the vaccine
- How to determine if a patient needs or should receive a particular vaccination
- Provision of federally required document - Vaccine Information Statement
- Procedures for preparing and administering the vaccine
- Templates available!
Standing Orders Help Smooth Clinic Operations
In a busy adult practice environment, the process of administering life-saving vaccinations can be unnecessarily complicated by higher priority demands on the physician’s time, leading to bottlenecks or missed opportunities to vaccinate.
Clinic staff, fortunately, are fully capable of assessing and vaccinating patients and can be empowered to do so under the authority of a physician using standing orders. With a standing orders program in place, staff leaders are better able to manage clinic operations and realize smoother processing of patients.
Using standing orders improves efficiency in delivering adult immunizations and increases overall adult immunization coverage rates, leading to improved patient health.
The Need For Standing Orders
Immunization rates for adults in the United States are unacceptably low: Influenza (49%), Tdap (17%), Zoster (24%).
As a result, more morbidity and mortality are associated with adult vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) than with pediatric VPDs, where stronger immunization efforts exist.
In a busy adult practice covering a broad range of services, delivery of adult immunizations can become an overlooked preventive intervention, despite the fact that full insurance coverage for patients up to 65 years of age is available under the Affordable Care Act.
Medical practices can help remedy this situation by implementing standing orders. These key practice components have been demonstrated to:
- Streamline assessment of the need for and the administration of vaccines
- Improve vaccine coverage rates in the practice
- Improve patient care
Despite the endorsement of the use of standing orders by multiple major medical and public health organizations, these simple tools are not being implemented in many adult practices, leading to multiple missed opportunities to vaccinate patients and to prevent unnecessary disease and death.