Tracking Vaccine Status to Keep Johns Hopkins Safe
The Vaccine Management System (VMS) was created to serve the needs of health services teams from the university and health system when COVID vaccines rolled out and tracking was required. VMS allows individuals to upload and input vaccine or exception information for several vaccine types. Health services and equity teams use the system to approve the documentation or request more information. Participants receive automated reminders when vaccine documentation is in review, approved, or late.
As COVID vaccines became widely available in early 2021, the Johns Hopkins Department of Health, Safety, and Environment needed a system to track and verify vaccinations and exemptions while managing compliance in a complex health system. Similarly, the Office of Student Health and Well-being faced the challenge of converting a manual, piecemeal vaccine reporting process into an automated system for students.
Leveraging expertise in enterprise platform development, human-centered design, and analytics, TAG created the Vaccine Management System (VMS), serving nearly 86,000 Johns Hopkins students, staff, and faculty. Automated reminders kept participants informed of their vaccine status, while the analytics team developed visualizations to help administrators oversee compliance and exemptions efficiently.
VMS is still in use for individuals to upload flu vaccine or exemption information, which health services and equity teams review for approval.