Immunisations Prescription Chart

It is important to the team at Leeds Children’s Hospital that all our inpatients, where appropriate, receive their childhood routine immunisations on time to ensure their protection. Despite our best efforts, there were times when there was confusion about the vaccination status of long-term inpatients, specifically if they were delayed due to health reasons.

Aim

To ensure that all routine immunisations required to be administered as an inpatient are delivered on-time.

Description

A single supplementary drug chart was designed, with all immunisations, brands and doses pre-printed as per the approved schedule. Supporting information was included as well as a space to note consent.

Implementation

The prescription chart has now been approved for use throughout the children’s hospital, although the neonatal unit has the highest incidence of use due to the age range of the inpatients.

Records of immunisations administered as an inpatient are now easier to locate within the patients’ notes, and subsequent immunisations are administered in a more timely fashion.

This tool was tailored specifically to the routine childhood immunisations schedule. It could be adapted for other uses, however it has been designed with a single purpose in mind.

Challenges and Learning

During development it was essential to gather opinions from a range of paediatric specialties to ensure suitability for use. There is the potential for site of administration to be added to the chart, as has been requested from the medical team.

This prescription chart has been locally approved by the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust prescription stationery group.

Project Lead: Cat Bell, Specialist Clinical Pharmacist

Organisation: Leeds Children’s Hospital