Effects of computer reminders for influenza vaccination on morbidity during influenza epidemics

• HIT Description: Computer-generated preventive care reminders. More info...
  
• Purpose of Study: Evaluate the effects of computer-generated reminders on physiciansÕ use of influenza vaccinations.
  
• Years of study: 1978-1981
  
• Study Design: RCT
  
• Outcomes: Impact on health care effectivness/quality
  

• Settings: Physicians from a general medicine clinic in Indiana and 4555 of their patients participated in this study.
• Intervention: Physicians receiving computer-generated reminders for influenza vaccination of patients at high risk of pulmonary disease during the winter were compared to control physicians receiving no remainders.
• Evaluation Method: Measures of influenza vaccinations, and percentage of patients with hospitalizations, emergency room visits with chest radiography, and blood gases.
• Healthcare Utilization: There was a linear increase in the incidence of influenza in the study area during the three winters under study (from 1000 to 33,451 to 71,075 cases per year), and the investigators modeled the percentage of patients with hospitalizations, emergency room visits with chest radiography, and blood gas determinations as a logistic function of this increase. The difference in linear trends between the patients in the intervention group and those in the control group was significant for emergency room visits (P 0.05), hospitalizations (P 0.01), and blood gas determinations (P 0.001).
• Quality of Care and Patient Safety Outcome: The physicians who received the reminders vaccinated eligible patients twice as often as did the control physicians (P = 0.0001).