**VMBIP Message: For transitioned grantees only**

**VACMAN 4.x questions and answers document, level 3**

**From:** Orta, Julie (CDC/CCID/NCIRD)\
**Sent:** Friday, February 08, 2008 10:02 AM\
**To:** NCIRD Immunization Grantee Mailbox (CDC)\
**Cc:** Orta, Julie (CDC/CCID/NCIRD)\
**Subject:** transitioned grantees only\--VACMAN 4.x Questions and
Answers Document, Level 3

 

 

This message is intended only for grantees that have transitioned to
centralized vaccine distribution. 

 

The attached VACMAN 4.x Q&A Document was prepared in response to the
questions submitted by grantees in December and January.  We hope you
will find this document useful.  

Julie Orta, MPH, CHES\
Assistant Project Lead\
Vaccine Management Business Improvement Project (VMBIP)\
Immunization Services Division/CDC\
1600 Clifton Rd, MS E-52\
Atlanta, GA  30333\
Tel:  (404) 639-8217\
Fax: (404) 639-8615\
[jio7@cdc.gov](blocked::mailto:jio7@cdc.gov)

Below is the attached reference document.

**VACMAN 4.x Questions and Answers**

**February 6, 2008**

**Question: When will the missing shipping dates/lot #s be populated in
VACMAN?**

**Answer:** For the most part, the issue with numerous grantees missing
large amounts of receipt information has been resolved. While grantees
still experience issues with missing receipt information, we are working
those issues one-on-one as they get reported to the VACMAN Help Desk.

**Question: Noticed that some of the orders under Order History will
still show submitted to manufacturer and they have been shipped. Is
there a way to get this information in VACMAN so that I don't have to
look up the shipping report to find out if it was actually shipped?
(Maybe it just didn't come through on VACMAN from transmitting?)**

**Answer:** The status in VACMAN will not update until McKesson sends
the receipt information to CDC. There can be a 3-5 work day time lag
between the vaccine ship date and the date that CDC receives the receipt
file from McKesson to update the order statuses.

**Question:** **Why is vaccine not showing in the drop down when it is
on the contract?**

**Answer:** Vaccine in the drop down list is based upon what the
provider has ordered. The vaccine drop down lists should be consistent
across the Doses Admin screen, the Provider Inventory screen, and the
Transaction screen. Please note that a bug has been found related to the
vaccine drop down list on the Transaction screen. This drop down list
currently includes all vaccines on contract, not just the vaccines
ordered by the provider. This will be fixed in VACMAN 4.1.4; release
date TBD.

**Question: We enter a lot of Doses Administered information. It would
really be great if the shortcuts used in Provider Orders could also be
used in the Doses Administered function.**

**Answer:** The VACMAN development staff verified the short cuts are
available in Doses Admin. The short cuts should work when either the
**Tab** key or the **Enter** key is used to exit the field; however, due
to a bug in the code, on the Doses Admin screen the short cut works only
when the **Tab** key is used to exit the field. This will be corrected
in the next VACMAN release.

**Question: Why does the manufacturer name on the orders not match the
manufacturer name on the receipts from McKesson? Is it just a matter of
the name presentation? Example: SKB vs. GSK**

**Answer:** The distributor's naming conventions are not standardized
with those used by VACMAN. A change will be implemented at CDC to ensure
naming conventions used for vaccine orders matches the receipt
information from the distributor.

**Question: We occasionally get an error message when processing that
states Error Number: 1925 and Error Message: Unknown member
OPTORDERTYPE.**

**Answer:** The error message described may be related to either the
VACMAN programming language or corrupted data. This type of error
message cannot be eliminated from VACMAN. We recommend that the user run
VACMAN Data Repair when they get the error.

**Question: There were some orders that never transmitted correctly back
in October 2007 and in the Description Field it says \"no ndc/no lot/
can\'t find in pvaccref\". These orders continue to show up in the
\"Orders Processed Not Yet Transmitted to CDC\" report that we download
as an Excel spreadsheet.**

**Answer:** This error message will continue to show up on the report
until those records are deleted from the ordering screen.

**Question:** **Why do I get the database/index files error when I
transmit?**

**Answer:** There are several reasons this error message will appear.
Among the most common reasons are (1) a lot of memory has been used
while placing orders and other information in VACMAN, leaving
insufficient memory to properly execute VACMAN operations, and (2) users
are still logged in when the transmit takes place. Before transmitting
orders to CDC, we recommend that whoever will transmit the order exit
VACMAN and log back in. This helps to reset all of the indexes and
refresh the memory. Additionally, to avoid data integrity issues, no one
else should be in VACMAN at the time the transmit is performed.

**Question:** **Why do I have to run the VACMAN Data Repair option each
time I get this error, "Error loading file -- record number 4
frmCommInit \<or one of its members\>. Loading form or the data
environment: File access is denied.**

**Answer:** It is recommended that VACMAN Data Repair be run upon
getting this error to rebuild or resync all of the indexes; critical for
the proper operation of VACMAN.

**Question: Please explain the statuses "Pending CDC Approval" and "Held
at CDC." What should grantees do when they see these messages?**

**Answer:** When a vaccine order is transmitted to CDC, the **Pending
Approval by CDC** status is assigned. The status will update on
subsequent transmits and downloads from CDC.

-   For a manufacturer (bulk order or direct ship order), the download
    will update the status to one of the following: (1) **Pending
    Approval by CDC;** (2) **Pending Approval by CDC** (with a PO Number
    Assigned); (3) or **Submitted to Manufacturer**.

-   For a provider order, the status will update to one of the
    following: (1) **Submitted to Manufacturer;** (2) **Accepted;**
    or (3) **Held at CDC**.

-   The **Held at CDC** status is returned when (1) no funds are
    available on the grant; (2) a vaccine or contract is disabled or
    expired; and (3) provider data is missing (i.e., no address, city,
    state, etc.). Additionally, NIPVAC performs up to 50 edit checks,
    and will return the status **Held at CDC** when any one of these
    checks fails.

    -   Provider orders will be **Held at CDC** for reason 1 above.

    -   Manufacturer orders will be **Held at CDC** for reasons 1
        through 3 above.

If you continue to see the messages **Pending CDC Approval** or **Held
at CDC** a few days after your have transmitted, please call your
Project Officer. If the reason for this message is funding related, your
Project Officer will work with you to resolve the problem. If it is not
a funding issue, your Project Officer may refer you to the VACMAN Help
Desk.

**Question: When will the \"over order\" warning functionality reappear
in the new VACMAN version, and what process can the grantees use in the
meantime to ensure providers are not over-ordering?**

**Answer:** The feature will be included in VACMAN 4.1.4; release date
TBD. Until then, the only way to ensure providers are not over-ordering
is to check the totals from the Orders Sent but Not Yet Shipped and
Orders Shipped reports against the Provider Enrollment information prior
to transmitting the orders to CDC. While this is time consuming for the
grantees, it is the only work around currently available.

**Question: In VACMAN 4.x, all Bulk Orders are state funded. If these
orders go to the manufacturer with instructions to ship to McKesson, how
do I get the vaccine to the providers?**

**Answer:** Once McKesson receives the state funded inventory, they
notify the grantees that they have the vaccine. The grantees can then
make a provider order using VACMAN. McKesson will ship the vaccine based
on the provider order. It should be noted that VACMAN does not provide
the grantees a way to tie these provider orders to the state funds. For
audit purposes, we recommend that grantees use a spreadsheet or some
other method external to VACMAN to track provider orders fulfilled with
vaccine purchased with state funds.

**Question:** How do we know the dose funding resources when doses
shipped but no doses input into Fdose1, Fdose2, and Fdose3 fields, where
doses are assigned to various funds in the distribution table.

**Answer:** In VACMAN 4.x, the provider orders funding source is known
as the "primary" account (what was known as "VFC\" in VACMAN 3). Direct
ship orders use one of the following funding sources: (1) VFC; (2) G317;
or (3) state. Bulk orders use only state funds. Additionally,
distributions are not a feature in VACMAN 4.x, so the fields identified
in the question are not valid.

**Question: Does VACMAN track the inventory level of vaccines purchased
with state funds?**

**Answer:** No. These inventories are maintained at the distributor, and
cannot be tracked using VACMAN.

**Question: Enrolled providers who have received VFC vaccine within the
current reporting year are active providers defined by CDC. Currently
using shipped vaccines to track providers, it is inaccurate. How do we
find out accurate received vaccines?**

**Answer:** In VACMAN 4.x, a combination of two reports will need to be
used to track provider orders. Values found on the Orders Shipped Report
and the Orders Sent but Not Yet Shipped Report should provide the
required information.

**Question: Is the problem fixed for ordering the same amount of a
vaccine --such as ordering 10 doses of HIB (ActHib) and 10 doses of HIB
(Pedvax)? Before there has been a problem with this and when you had an
order for each brand but the same amount of doses, only one of them
would show up on the orders when transmitted.**

**Answer:** We need more specific information in order to verify that a
problem exists. We are able to enter an order and generate the Orders
Entered Not Yet Sent to CDC report which shows both vaccines. The
presumption is that nothing is going on in the actual transmit process
that changes what we see on the report.

**Question: When a vaccine order is transmitted to CDC and only some of
the vaccine is shipped and received, should the unfilled orders be
re-entered in VACMAN and transmitted to CDC again?**

**Answer:** Not unless advised to do so by the VACMAN Help Desk. When
the situation described occurs, first check the status in VACMAN. If the
status is: (1) "Pending Approval by CDC" or (2) "Held at CDC", the
grantee should contact their Project Officer. An order should never be
re-entered unless the original order has been cancelled.

**Question: We had to do a data restore from backup and now we have
duplicate orders shipped from the distributor. Why?**

**Answer:** If a grantee has to perform a data restore from backup, call
the VACMAN Help Desk for assistance first. If the restore from backup is
performed without assistance from the VACMAN Help Desk, **DO NOT**
**enter new orders** until the Help Desk has been contacted. After data
recovery, the grantee's VACMAN application has to be re-synchronized
with the CDC systems. If the re-synchronization is not performed, the
grantee may have orders cancelled due to duplicate order ids, or may
have duplicate orders sent to the distributor.

**Question: How will we know if a provider\'s order (in part or full) is
being held for any reason at McKesson (e.g. backorder, inadequate state
supply)?**

**Answer:** A backorder report is available in VACMAN 4.1.3.1.

This document can be found on the CDC website at:

<http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/vacman/downloads/vacman-4x-faqs-508.doc>