Record Immunisations and Send to AIR

NOTE  Step 3 only applies to patients under 8 years old. This step can be skipped for all other patients.

1. Open the patient record for the patient you want to Add an immunisation record for.
2. Select Immunisations from the left hand tree. The Vaccines given list will be displayed.

If the patient is under eight years old, the screen shows the childhood immunisation schedule to the left of the Vaccines given list. Vaccinations that the patient is too young for will be disabled.



If the patient is over 8 years old, the childhood immunisation schedule will not display.



3. If you are administering the birth Hep B vaccination, tick the Birth checkbox in the childhood immunisation schedule and select the date administered from the Birth Hepatitis B vaccination pop up.



4. To record a childhood schedule vaccination, tick the checkbox for that vaccine. To record vaccines for patients over 8 years old, click Add from above the vaccines given list. The Immunisation screen will appear.

NOTE  If the minimum details for a patient to be identified by the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) have not been added to the patient demographic, an alert will appear indicating which details will need to be added to send the immunisation to the AIR.



5. Select the vaccine from the Available Vaccines list at the top of the window.
6. The Billing Provider and Given By fields default to the logged-in user, but can be changed. The Billing Provider field is the name that appears on the AIR list when transmitted.

TIP   The Billing Provider field is set to the logged-in user if the user has a provider number. Otherwise, Billing Provider is blank by default.

Select Given Overseas from the Billing Provider field to record a vaccination that was not received in Australia. The Country: field will be enabled. Select the country that the vaccine was received in.

7. Enter the Date the vaccine was given.
8. Select the Route of administration and Site. The following routes of administration are available to be selected:
• IMI = Intramuscular
• SC = Subcutaneous
• Intradermal
• Oral



NOTE  In Orchid SP1 Revision 1, if a vaccination provider is both the immunisation and information provider, and the vaccine was administered on or after 1 March 2024, specifying the Route of Administration will be mandatory for selected vaccines when sending an encounter to AIR.

9. Select the Sequence number for the vaccination.
10. If you are recording a vaccination for a student in a school program, you can use the School ID: field to select the school if your practice has added it as a contact. See Add a new contact for more information.
11. The Serial No: field is only used for recording COVID-19 vaccinations. See COVID Vaccinations and AIR Submission for more information. See COVID Vaccinations and AIR Submission for more information.
12. Select a vaccination Batch No. if batch numbers have been defined, or enter a number as free text if known.

NOTE  In Orchid SP1 Revision 1, if a vaccination provider is both the immunisation and information provider, and the vaccine was administered on or after 1 March 2024, specifying the Batch Number will be mandatory for selected vaccines when sending an encounter to AIR.

13. For batch numbers entered as free text, tick the checkbox in the date selector and enter the vaccine expiry date.
14. Tick Save batch details if you free typed the batch number and want it stored against the vaccination type in the Bp Premier list of batch numbers.
15. Select the Vaccine Type. The vaccination provider must specify the type of a vaccine depending on the patient's eligibility in the National Immunisation Program (NIP). The following options will be available for selection:
    • Antenatal
    • NIP/Commonwealth
    • Private
    • State Program

    NOTE  In Orchid SP1 Revision 1, if a vaccination provider is both the immunisation and information provider, and the vaccine was administered on or after 1 March 2024, specifying Vaccine Type will be mandatory for selected vaccines when uploading an encounter to AIR.

16. Optional: Enter any additional Comments for the vaccination.
17. Tick Send reminder to add an immunisation reminder to the patient record for the date indicated in the Reminder date field.
18. Ensure Send to AIR is ticked (it will be ticked by default) and click Save to save the immunisation in Bp Premier and send the immunisation to the AIR. Otherwise, untick Send to AIR and click Save to save the immunisation in Bp Premier without sending the immunisation to the AIR.

You can filter the patient's immunisation list by disease using the Filter by disease drop down menu. All diseases the patient has been immunised for will appear in the menu, ordered alphabetically.

NOTE  Clicking Print will print the patient's entire immunisation history, not just the items set to display via Filter by disease.

1. Select Clinical > Immunisations from the main menu. The Immunisation list will appear.



2. Click the Vaccine drop down box to select the immunisation list to be printed.
3. Use the options at the top of the screen to filter the search results:
• Given by
• Start date
• End date
• Born before
• Born after
4. Select Print each doctor's list on separate pages when printing details to separate the printed list of immunisations by doctor.

The Immunisation list will display any immunisations recorded that meet the filter criteria.

5. To open a patient's record, select the name and select File > Open Patient or click on the toolbar.

After you have created a list of immunisations, you can save to file, resend to AIR, print a formatted list, or print a simple list.

Save to file

1. Select File > Save.
2. Enter the File name to save the file as and select the file type required in the Save as type field: XML, CSV, or TXT format.
3. Click Save.

Resend to AIR

1. Select File > Resend to AIR.

Use this function when you identify immunisations that have not been received by the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) and need to be resent. All immunisations in the list will be marked and appear in the Australian Immunisation Register screen for transmission to Medicare. See Send immunisation records to AIR for more information.

Print a formatted list

1. Select File > Print details or click on the toolbar. This option prints an Immunisation Register in a format suitable for submission to bodies such as the HPV Register. An example formatted printout is shown below.

Print a simple list

1. Select File > Print list to print a simple list of the immunisations displayed.

Injections that are not listed in the immunisation screen can be recorded through the Procedure screen in Today's Notes.

1. Select Procedure from the row of buttons at the bottom of Today's Notes in the Patient record. The Procedure screen will appear.



2. Type your search term into the search: field at the top of the screen and click Keyword search. The Procedure list will populate with results.
3. Select the injection to be administered from the Procedure list. If it is not listed, free type the injection into the Procedure: field.
4. Add any relevant information such as the injection batch number or expiry date to the Further details field and tick any applicable check boxes to the right of the Procedure list.
5. Click Save.

You can view AIR audit and error logs via the Medicare Web Service log utility. You must have the Allow access permission set for Configuration to access the Medicare Web Service Log utility.

To access the utility:

1. Open the computer's file explorer, navigate to C:\Program Files\Best Practice Software\BPS, and double-click View MWS Log.EXE.
2. Enter a Bp Premier user name and password when prompted, and click Login. The Medicare Web Service Log screen will appear.
3. Select AIRWS from the Service code: filter to view AIR data.

When submitting vaccination encounters to the Australian Immunisation Register, vaccination providers may receive the following error codes.