Pregnancy status soon mandated for AIR reporting

All vaccination providers will soon be required by law to report the pregnancy status of their patients when they record their vaccinations in the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR).
 
Coming into effect on 1 March this year, the Department of Health and Aged Care says the changes are designed to ensure the AIR contains a ‘complete and reliable dataset’.
 
It says this enables the monitoring of immunisation coverage and administration, as well as the effectiveness and safety of maternal vaccines and vaccination programs, such as the National Immunisation Program (NIP), influenza, and other respiratory vaccines.
 
In response to these changes, the new indicator will be rolled out in clinical software throughout 2025, with providers able to update to the latest version to make sure they have the latest functionality.
 
If the new antenatal indicator is not yet available in a provider’s clinical software, they must report antenatal information to the AIR using the ‘Antenatal’ option under the ‘Vaccine type’ field.
 
However, GP and Immunisation Coalition Chair Dr Rodney Pearce said there are some practical features which could be added to the AIR to make the mandated reporting more worthwhile for clinicians.
 
‘I need to be able to enquire into the AIR in real time … I need to look at my population in real time and see who’s been vaccinated, so I can make sure the flu vaccines and COVID vaccines are all done, rather than having to do it one [patient] at a time,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘Often, we’re asked to import data into various fields, but we don’t necessarily tangibly get feedback around that or understand how many [of our patients] are vaccinated?
 
‘If we’re going to be contributing to this vaccination data, it’s got to be a quid pro quo, if we’re bothering to put better data in, we want better data out, and available data out- so that we can actually use it practically.’
 
Recording of vaccinations has been mandated via legislation since 2021, prior to that recording of vaccinations in the national register was optional.
 
Under the AIR Act, it is mandated that all vaccination providers must document the administration of COVID-19, influenza, NIP and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) vaccines.
 
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