What is a vaccination product code?

What is a vaccination product code?

In recent years regional offices for NHS England has been issuing communications for primary care describing how adult vaccinations should be recorded. Primary Care IT has seen communications for shingles, RSV, and MMR which all make reference to Procedure codes and Product codes. There is an expectation that both are recorded when administering a vaccine. Many users have been confused by the Product code terminology since it is not used elsewhere.
Info
The instruction to "record a product code when a vaccine is given" simply means "issue a prescription". Once the vaccination has been coded, add a medication, select Priorix Tetra (if giving MMRV) and ensure it is marked as Personally Administered to avoid generating a physical prescription. 


Procedure codes

Procedure codes are SNOMED CT codes that are available to select in EMIS Web. Sometimes the code term provided in NHS England's letter does not match with what is seen in the system, but as long as the concept ID is the same there is no problem.
For example the concept ID 432636005 was shown with a term:
Quote
"Administration of vaccine product containing only Human alphaherpesvirus 3 and Measles morbillivirus and Mumps orthorubulavirus and Rubella virus antigens (procedure)"
but EMIS shows this with a shorter and more friendly term:
Quote
"Administration of measles and mumps and rubella and varicella virus vaccine"

Product codes

Product codes are also SNOMED CT codes, part of the dm+d drug extension, but they cannot be seen by an end user in the clinical system. Instead they are hidden "behind" a medication.
End users can still find the code in termbrowser.nhs.uk. In the below example the corresponding Product code for the Procedure code 432636005 is 45525711000001102 which is Priorix Tetra.

Notes
TPP SystmOne and Medicus manage vaccinations in a different way to EMIS Web, combining the Product and the procedure so each vaccination component is recorded along with the numbered dose. EMIS Web's non standard approach to vaccinations is also why degraded items occur when electronic records are transferred between GP Practices.  

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