|
| Web Forecaster FAQs |
 What does the ALERT Forecaster show me? |
 The ALERT Forecaster shows “Shots past due” and “Shots due now” for children age 0-14 years in the ALERT database. This information is offered as a tool for clinicians, schools, and child care providers to use in keeping their young children up-to-date. Checking the ALERT Forecaster for all children will help avoid missed opportunities for shots, while simplifying the complex childhood immunization schedule. |
| What vaccines does the ALERT Forecaster include? |
| The antigens currently forecast are: DTaP, Polio, Varicella, MMR, Hep B, Hep A, PCV7, Hib, Tdap, Rotavirus and Meningococcal. While ACIP recommends the Influenza vaccine, it is not included in the automated forecast at this time. |
| Who will have an immunization forecast available in ALERT? |
| The Forecaster will be available for all children born on or after January 1, 1993. Data on the ALERT Web site will be updated weekly. |
| What schedule does the ALERT Forecaster follow? |
| The Forecaster follows the ACIP schedule for childhood immunizations (www.cdc.gov/nip/acip).
For more information on how the algorithms are created, visit the ALERT Website.
|
| Do all ALERT users have access to the Forecaster? |
| The Forecaster is available to private clinics, some public clinics, schools, and certified child care centers. Public clinics using IRIS (Immunization Record Information System) do not have access to the ALERT Forecaster, as they have a forecaster already built into their information system. |
| How do I access the ALERT Forecaster? |
| The ALERT Forecaster will automatically be included in immunization records provided by ALERT for children age 0-14 years. To access records that include the ALERT Forecaster, simply log on to the ALERT Web site (www.immalert.org). The ALERT forecaster will be refreshed weekly. |
| Where will I see the Forecaster? |
| The Forecaster will be located along the right margin of the immunization record printed from the ALERT Web site. In addition, messages related to the forecast will be located within the immunization record (for example, “Dose given too soon for minimum spacing” will appear under doses that do not meet the ACIP standards for adequate wait time between doses). |
| What if I see two names listed with two separate forecasts and I suspect that they belong to the same child? |
| If you suspect that two records belong to the same child, you may be correct. ALERT imports thousands of records each day, and some records in the database have not yet been merged. If duplicate records contain different shots, the forecasts accompanying these records may not be accurate. Call ALERT Customer Service to verify if two records belong to the same child. |
| What if I see several doses of the same vaccine for one child that are within a few days of each other? Are these all different shots, or could they be duplicate reports of the same shot? |
| Sometimes several sources report the same shot on slightly different days. For example, a child’s clinic may report a DTaP shot on 9/1/04, while the child’s insurance company may report the same shot on the billing date, 9/3/04. If one shot appears to be reported twice, it is safer to disregard the shot marked "secondary source" under notations, as the clinic is likely the more reliable source. |
| What if the ALERT Forecaster is showing “Shots past due” or “Shots due now” for shots that the child has already received? |
| If you are a medical clinic, please submit all historical and current shots for patients under your care. You can submit missing immunization information just as you submit weekly ALERT data, or use the ALERT Update Form to submit missing information for children you’ve already enrolled in ALERT (call ALERT Customer Service for copies of Update Forms). You can also modify incorrect data submitted by your clinic, but you cannot change data submitted by other sources. If you are not a medical clinic, please encourage the child’s primary provider to submit all shots. This will help the ALERT registry, and the ALERT Forecaster, to be as accurate and complete as possible. |
| What if the record says “Forecast Unavailable”? |
| If the immunization record says "Forecast Unavailable", this either means that 1) the child is outside the age range currently forecasted (0-14 years), or 2) the forecaster failed to run for this child, and will likely be refreshed in the next web load. |
| What if I have questions or comments about the Forecaster? |
If you would like to give us written feedback about the ALERT forecaster, please fill out the online survey (see link on the “Search” page). If you have questions about the ALERT Forecaster, please contact ALERT Customer Service at:
Phone, Portland Metro: 971-673-0275 FAX: 971-673-0276 Email: OHD.ALERT@state.or.us |
Our website's database was last updated on 1/30/2012
with 31,269,974 immunizations.
[v3.4] Users online [5]