This feature will allow you to administer vaccines to your patients, track vaccination status/due dates, as well as automatically notify clients about these reminders on a set schedule.
📓 Please Note: To request the Vaccines and Service Reminders feature please contact us at support@instinct.vet.
Table Of Contents
⚙ Setting Up Reminder Labels
The Reminder Labels are under the Inventory section of the Admin. In order to view the Reminder Labels screen your practice must have the Vaccine & Service Reminders feature enabled and a hospital administrator will need to add the admin_reminder_labels permission to the appropriate user role (or create a new one) in order to create and edit reminder labels.
Reminder Labels are sorted alphabetically:
New Reminder Labels can be created by clicking the +New Label button at the top of the screen.
- Up to three Valid For dates can be entered for each Reminder Label
- The field will accept only whole numbers, with a maximum of 2 digits
- Duplicate names are not permitted, and this field is not case sensitive
- Ex. Lyme 1y would be considered a duplicate of lyme 1Y
Once a Reminder Label has been created it cannot be renamed or deleted, however you can inactivate a Reminder Label by flipping the Active toggle OFF. Inactivating a Reminder Label will automatically remove it from all associated products.
➕ Creating a Vaccine Class Product
You can create new Vaccine Class Products in the Admin section. When a Vaccine class is selected:
- The Tx Category will default to Vaccines and will not be editable
- The Formulation Unit will default to dose
- The Frequency will default to Once
- The Quantity will default to 1
- At least one Reminder Label must be associated with the product
- The Manufacturer field is required
- Products with the Rabies Vaccine toggle ON will be eligible to generate a Rabies Certificate PDF
Once a Vaccine class product has been created, all fields are editable except:
- Class
- Tx Category
- Rabies Vaccine toggle
Due to the nature of impacting information on previously administered vaccines, you’ll see a warning message before any edits to a Vaccine Product can be saved:
💡 Pro-Tip: For Rabies Vaccines, including the lot/serial number and tag number within the default order notes of the Product makes it easy to quickly copy/paste into the required fields when completing the treatment.
💉 Ordering and Completing Vaccines
Search for and order vaccines like any other product, including through product groups and one-off orders. Vaccines will display under the Vaccines category on the Tx Sheet.
When ordering Vaccines on the TX Sheet, we suggest communicating in the Order Notes when the Reminder should be assigned.
📓 Please Note: When a vaccine order is completed or discontinued, it will move to the bottom of the section just like medications. It will not move to the Discontinued/Completed section at the bottom of the Tx Sheet.
When completing a Vaccine treatment, any field with an asterisk (*) next to it is a required selection. For Rabies Vaccines, a Lot/Serial Number and an Expiration Date is always required so that an accurate Rabies Certificate can be generated.
Setting a Reminder period will update the Next Due date in the Reminders section of the Patient Info Bar, and Completing the vaccine treatment will replace any existing Next Due date.
Once Complete, all Vaccine details can be found in the Order History.
In the Order History screen you can Edit a Completed Vaccine:
- If a vaccine treatment is completed in error, it can be edited and marked as NC (not complete)
- Marking a vaccine treatment as NC will trigger any associated reminders to revert to the previous information
- If a vaccine treatment is marked as NC in error, the order can be edited and modified to Completed. Doing this will override existing Reminders once again.
Vaccines can also be completed via the One-Off button.
Treatment Notes can be added at the time of Treatment or One-Off completion, and can be used to indicate vaccine administration location, or any other important details, and will display when hovering over the Reminder Label in the Patient Info Bar.
📓 Please Note: You cannot prescribe Vaccines and they cannot be added to the RX tab. To prevent invoicing a vaccine without entering proper information (recording the treatment, setting reminders, lot numbers, etc), vaccine products cannot be added directly to the invoice.
Vaccines in Product Groups
Vaccine Class Products can be added to Product Groups. Once a Vaccine is added to the Product Group, the available fields will be pre-populated with the default Vaccine settings.
Vaccines in Estimates
You can add individual Vaccines or Vaccine Product Groups to an Estimate.
📓 Please Note: If using the Complete and Generate Invoice button on the Estimate, only billable items and non-vaccines are available to be added directly to the Invoice. To add a Vaccine to the Invoice, please do so through the Tx Sheet or One-Off.
📅 Vaccine Reminders
Once a vaccine is marked as Complete, the Reminders section of the Patient Info Bar updates to reflect the Reminder Label of the vaccine given and the Next Due date.
📓 Please Note: Completing a vaccine treatment will automatically update and replace any existing reminders for associated Reminder Labels. This means that any existing Reminder Notes will no longer display.
Clicking on the Reminder in the Reminders section of the Patient Info Bar allows you to Edit the Valid For date, Add or Edit any Reminder Notes, or deactivate the Vaccine Reminder
Hovering over the Reminder Label in the Patient Info Bar displays a tooltip if there are any Reminder Notes or Treatment Notes
Adding a Vaccine Reminder
For instances where Vaccines were given at another facility, you can add a Vaccination Reminder manually by clicking on the 3-dot menu in the Reminders section in the Patient Info Bar and selecting +Add Reminder:
You can search for and choose any active reminder label, regardless of class, from the dropdown menu.
This allows you to send a reminder notification to the client for vaccines given in the past that were not part of the patient’s Instinct medical history.
Once the Vaccination Reminder has been added, the Reminders section will update displaying the Vaccines with sooner Next Due dates at the top:
💡 ProTip: Patients must have at least one visit in Instinct before you can view their Chart and enter Vaccination Reminders. We suggest checking them in to the On-The-Way board to upload any medical records and update vaccine reminders prior to their first visit.
Deceased Patient Reminders
When patient is marked as Deceased, any Reminders will be immediately set to inactive and will no longer display on the Reminders section of the Patient Info Bar.
If a patient was marked as Deceased in error and the box is unchecked, any Reminders from before they were marked as deceased will display again and can be reactivated by clicking directly on the Reminder and toggling Active to ON.
📧 Reminder Emails
Reminder notification emails are sent to the client at 7:00am local time on Wednesdays, and are sent to all emails on the account’s primary contact. Instinct will send an email for each patient that has upcoming vaccine reminders within the 45 day window.
After a reminder email has been sent, a copy of the email will be logged in the patient’s Comm Log, and those vaccine reminders are marked as sent in the database to prevent duplicate notification emails.
📓 Please Note: Overdue reminders will not be included in the reminder emails. However, a future improvement of our vaccine reminder email notifications will include overdue reminders.
📨 Opt-Out for Email Notifications
Clients have the option to Opt-Out of email notifications. You will also be able to turn off email notifications directly from the Account edit screen.
A bell icon with an X will indicate an email has opted-out of notifications.
📄 Vaccine Certificates
From the Reminders 3-dot menu you can print vaccination certificates. The “Print Rabies Certificate” option is available when the patient has had a rabies vaccine through the practice that uses Instinct, otherwise the option is disabled and displays a tooltip indicating why it is disabled.
As long as the patient has received a rabies vaccine from your Instinct practice, you are able to print a rabies certificate. The patient can be checked in, checked out, marked as deceased, or not have an active reminder and still be able to print the certificate.
As with the rabies certificate, a vaccine certificate is available via the Reminders 3-dot menu. The “Print Vaccine Certificate” option is available when a patient has at least 1 active vaccine reminder. As patient reminders are removed when the patient is marked deceased, the vaccine certificate is not available for deceased patients unlike the rabies certificate.
When printing or attaching records, you can find any vaccination record certificates in the Patient Documents section. When a certificate is not available to print or send, the checkbox is disabled and includes a tooltip explaining why the certificate is unavailable.
When the certificate is available to print or send, the checkbox is enabled and can be checked to include it in the record download or Comm Log email.
When generated, the rabies certificate PDF displays information about the most recently completed rabies vaccination including:
- Tag Number (if available)
- Issue Date (the date of treatment completion if Tag Number is available)
- Vaccine (the product name of the rabies vaccination)
- Manufacturer
- Serial Number
- Expiration
- Date of Vaccination
- Vaccination Period (from the Next Due option in the reminder label)
- Signature Line
- This includes the date the PDF was printed, the veterinarian name, and their state license number
When generated, the vaccine certificate PDF lists all non-rabies vaccinations for a patient. In particular, the PDF includes:
- Vaccine
- Last Provided
- Valid For
- Next Due
Want to learn about Health/Service Reminders? Check out our Health/Service Reminders Guide on Careville!