Estimated Vaccination Dates

When obtaining historical information from patients about when they received vaccines, sometimes the exact dates of the vaccine administration aren't known. Having the exact dates is ideal, if possible, but in many cases, it is not necessary to have an exact date to know whether a patient is due, overdue, or up to date. For example, if a 10-year-old received an influenza vaccine in October, he/she is up to date for the current season - the exact date of the vaccine is not necessary. Similarly, if an adult last received a Tetanus vaccine in 2005 and arrives in the ER with a dirty wound, it is clear the patient needs a booster. Most systems require users to enter exact dates, even if the information isn't accurate (i.e., entering '2015-01-01' if only 2015 is known). This bad data can potentially be clinically misleading when propagated to other systems and can skew downstream use of the data in research, reports and analytics.