Recognition as digital innovation delivers child immunisation service boost
Pictured (left to right): Digital transformation consultant Tommy Garland and managing director Declan Grogan, of NDL, present BCHC colleagues data architect Jonathan Ko; business intelligence manager Alan Collinge; head of information Steve Pollard; and BCHC Charity project support manager Adam Bunce-Sweeney with a prize cheque.
A ground-breaking partnership between BCHC’s school-age immunisation nurses and business intelligence colleagues has been recognised with a prestigious national award for digital tech innovation.
BCHC won the ‘innovation’ award in the annual NDL Community Awards after impressing judges with the creation of new systems to comprehensively digitise the process of delivering immunisation sessions for pupils in Birmingham and Solihull schools. The accolade also meant the Trust scooped a £1,000 prize, which has been donated to the BCHC Charity.
The project saw a largely paper-based admin system replaced by a mobile app for clinicians to record vaccinations; an online form for parents and carers to give consent; and a web portal for scheduling clinics.
The new system gives far better oversight of issues affecting individual children such as conflicting consents or allergies and has delivered significant paper savings, supporting the Trust’s environmental sustainability goals.
Judges commended the initiative for “significantly enhanced service delivery, demonstrating substantial impact and efficiency, aligning with its goal of achieving high immunisation coverage among children”.
Over 50,000 e-consents and 37,000 vaccinations were recorded in the ten months since the system was launched in January 2024. In the first two months of the autumn school term, consent for the flu vaccine was recorded digitally for 30,000 children and 16,000 vaccinations had been administered.
School age immunisation service clinical manager Fiona Nicholls said the innovation has significantly improved data accuracy, streamlined processes and freed up team members for conversations with families in communities where there is more reluctance to give consent for immunisation.
“Our team worked alongside business intelligence colleagues to develop the portal and throughout the project, staff in the school-aged immunisation team provided essential clinical feedback, leading to further refinement by the business intelligence team," Fiona said.
“Tens of thousands of vaccinations have been administered on the basis of consent received through this portal, reducing the need to print, transport and manually process paper consent forms.”
Head of Information Steve Pollard added: “Harnessing the potential of digital technology to improve service delivery is a strategic priority and it demands effective partnership work between clinicians and IT system specialists.
“This was a great example of working together to achieve measurable benefits for the communities we serve.”