Impact of an electronic health record (EHR) reminder on human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine initiation and timely completion

Background: The initiation and timely completion of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in young women is critical. We compared the initiation and completion of the HPV vaccine among women in 2 community-based networks with electronic health records: 1 with a prompt and reminder system (prompted cohort) and 1 without (unprompted cohort). Methods: Female patients aged 9 to 26 years seen between March 1, 2007, and January 25, 2010, were used as the retrospective cohort. Patient demographics and vaccination dates were extracted from the electronic health records. Results: Patients eligible for the vaccine included 6019 from the prompted cohort and 9096 from the unprompted cohort. Mean age at initiation was 17.3 years in the prompted cohort and 18.1 years in the unprompted cohort. Significantly more (P <.001) patients initiated the vaccine in the prompted cohort (34.9%) compared with the unprompted cohort (21.5%). African Americans aged 9 to 18 years with ≥3 visits during the observation period were significantly more likely to initiate in the prompted cohort (P <.001). The prompted cohort was significantly more likely (P <.001) to complete the vaccine series in a timely manner compared with the unprompted cohort. Conclusion: More patients aged 9 to 26 years initiated and achieved timely completion of the HPV vaccine series in clinics using an electronic health record system with prompts compared with clinics without prompts.