2025–2026 Annual Influenza Summary Training

Votive streamlines submitting your facility's yearly influenza summary to CMS via the NHSN, helping you fulfill Quality Reporting Program requirements and avoid reimbursement penalties.

To manage staff influenza vaccinations, navigate to the Tracker menu and select Vaccine.
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On the Vaccination Tracker page, update the following filters in the top-right corner:

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This displays all staff who worked at your facility between October 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026, along with their influenza vaccination records. These records will populate your annual summary.

Votive automatically determines staff inclusion, but you can manually adjust this.

To exclude a staff member, click Exclude in the Status column next to their name.
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To view excluded staff, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Show Excluded Staff. Click Include to add them back.
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Click Add Vaccine in the staff member's row to open the vaccination popup.
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Ensure Influenza is selected under Immunization Type. The manufacturer name is optional and can be set to "Unspecified."

Navigate to Submissions > Annual Submission and click on the active 2025–2026 influenza summary.
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If your facility has not enrolled in the HPS component within the NHSN or has not granted Votive access to submit on your behalf, a warning will appear at the top of the page. These steps must be completed first — contact Votive support if you need help.
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The summary has two sections.

These questions cover your facility's influenza vaccination policies and practices. Guidance on each:

​Q1 – Which personnel groups are included in your vaccination campaign? Most facilities select "Full-time" and "Part-time" employees. Physicians, APNs, and PAs depend on your facility's policies. Students, trainees, volunteers, and contract personnel are rarely included.

​Q2 – Out-of-pocket cost for personnel to receive vaccination at your facility? Most facilities enter 0. Votive pre-fills 0 — verify before moving on.

​Q3 – Methods used to deliver vaccine to personnel? Facility-specific. Check all that apply.

​Q4 – Strategies used to promote personnel vaccination? Facility-specific. Check all that apply.

​Q5 – Facility's vaccination policy for personnel? Most facilities select "Influenza vaccination is recommended but not required."

​Q6 – Which personnel groups are covered by your vaccination policy? Typically the same groups selected in Q1.

​Q7 – Documentation required for off-site vaccinations? Facility-specific. Check all that apply.

​Q8 – What is required from personnel who refuse vaccination? Most facilities select "Standardized paper or electronic declination form completed by healthcare worker." Only one answer can be selected.

​Q9 – Must personnel who refuse vaccination wear a mask or PPE? Most facilities select "No." Your facility, county, or state policies may differ.

This section requests vaccination counts for staff between October 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026. Votive pre-calculates these values based on your staff list and vaccination records. You may use the calculated values or enter your own.

The "Other contract personnel" category is optional — enter 0 if you prefer not to report it. Q15 is auto-calculated from Q10–Q14.

Once all questions are complete, click the blue Submit to NHSN button at the bottom of the page.
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After submission, you'll be redirected to the Annual Submission page where you can track the status as Votive submits and verifies with the NHSN.
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If you encounter any issues, contact Votive support.

The video below covers the same process outlined above. It was recorded during a prior season under our former branding ("EasyReporting"). The workflow remains unchanged — any differences in branding or product names can be disregarded.
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Votive streamlines the task of submitting the yearly influenza summary to CMS via the NHSN. By doing so, healthcare facilities can effortlessly fulfill the requirements of CMS's Quality Reporting Program and avoid any potential decrease in their reimbursement rates.

Our platform offers a straightforward and user-friendly approach to reporting, enabling healthcare providers to focus on what they do best: providing top-notch care to residents. With Easy Reporting, facilities can easily and efficiently submit their influenza data, saving them valuable time and resources.

In this training video, we will guide you through managing staff influenza vaccinations in Easy Reporting and demonstrate how to complete and submit the 2022-2023 annual influenza summary. By the end of this session, you'll be equipped with all the knowledge you need to streamline your reporting process and ensure that your facility remains compliant with CMS's Quality Reporting Program. Please keep in mind that all personally identifiable information in this training video is fake and has been randomly generated. Any specific data presented has been edited for training and may not be representative of your facility's specific situation.

To manage staff influenza vaccinations for the 2022-2023 annual influenza summary in Easy Reporting, navigate to the "Vaccine" section under the "Tracker" menu.

Once on the "Vaccination Tracker" page, locate the "Vaccine Filter" in the top-right corner and change it from "Covid-19" to "Influenza".

Next, change the "Person Filter" from "Everyone" to "Staff".

Lastly, adjust the "Reporting Filter" from "Current Week" to "2022-2023".

This will display a list of staff members who worked at your facility between October 1st, 2022, and March 31st, 2023, along with their corresponding influenza vaccinations. These records will be included in your 2022-2023 annual influenza summary. If your facility joined Easy Reporting after October 1st, 2022, and you have staff members not listed in Easy Reporting that need to be included in your summary, please contact Easy Reporting support for assistance.

While Easy Reporting automatically determines staff inclusion in your summary, some facilities may need to manually exclude or include certain staff members.

To exclude a staff member, click the "Exclude" button in the "Status" column next to the staff member's name.

To include a staff member, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Show Excluded Staff".

This will display a list of staff members excluded from your facility's summary.

To include a staff member, click the "Include" button under their name.

To add an influenza vaccination or declination for a staff member, click the "Add Vaccine" button in the corresponding row.

This will open Easy Reporting's standard vaccination popup, where you can input the vaccination or declination information.

Before proceeding, ensure that "Influenza" is selected in the "Immunization Type" dropdown, if "Covid-19" is pre-selected.

When entering an influenza vaccination, providing the manufacturer's name is optional and can be set to "Unspecified" if unknown.

However, the "Given in Facility" dropdown must be completed, as it corresponds to a question in the annual summary.

To submit your facility's 2022-2023 annual influenza summary in Easy Reporting, navigate to the "Annual Submission" section under the "Submissions" menu.

Once there, you will find an active submission for your 2022-2023 annual influenza summary. Click on it to open the summary and prepare it for completion and submission.

Please note that if your facility has not yet enrolled in the HPS component within the NHSN or has not granted Easy Reporting the necessary access to submit the 2022-2023 annual influenza summary on your behalf, a warning message will appear at the top of the page. You must first complete these steps before submitting your summary. For questions or assistance regarding this process, do not hesitate to contact Easy Reporting support.

The 2022-2023 annual influenza summary is divided into two sections:

The first section contains general questions about your facility's influenza vaccination program and policies.

The second section requests specific data on staff influenza vaccinations between October 1st, 2022, and March 31st, 2023.

We will discuss the questions presented in the first section and provide guidance on how best to answer them.

Question 1

Which personnel groups are included in your facility's annual influenza vaccination campaign?

Every facility will probably select "Full-time" and "part-time" employees for this question. Physicians, advanced practice nurses, and physician assistants may be selected depending on your facility's specific policies. It will be rare that a facility will select "students, trainees, volunteers, or other contract personnel" as these groups are not typically included in a facility's annual influenza vaccination campaign.

Question 2

What is the out-of-pocket cost for each of the following groups of healthcare personnel to receive influenza vaccination at your facility?

All facilities will probably enter 0 for the answers to this question. Easy Reporting atomically enters a 0 for you however, please verify that there is a 0 before moving on to the next question.

Question 3

Which of the following methods is your facility using this influenza season to deliver vaccine to your healthcare personnel?

The answers to this question depend on your facility. Check all the answers that apply to your specific facility.

Question 4

Which of the following strategies does your facility use to promote/enhance healthcare personnel influenza vaccination at your facility?

The answers to this question depend on your facility. Check all the answers that apply to your specific facility.

Question 5

What is your facility's influenza vaccination policy for healthcare personnel?

Most facilities will select the answer "Influenza vaccination is recommended but not required".

Question 6

Which personnel groups are covered by your facility's influenza vaccination policy?

The answers to this question will probably be the same as the answers to question 1 above as the groups covered by your facility's influenza vaccination policy should be the same groups included in your facility's annual influenza vaccination campaign.

Question 7

What type of documentation does your facility require to validate the vaccination status of healthcare personnel who receive an off-site influenza vaccination?

The answers to this question depend on your facility. Check all the answers that apply to your specific facility.

Question 8

What does your facility require from healthcare personnel who refuse influenza vaccination?

Most facilities will select the answer "Standardized paper or electronic declination form completed by healthcare worker". While more than one answer may be applicable for your facility, only one answer can be selected.

Question 9

Does your facility require healthcare personnel who refuse influenza vaccination to wear a mask or other personal protective equipment (PPE)?

Most facilities will select the answer "No" as refusing the influenza vaccination alone is usually not a factor in wearing PPE. However, your facility's policies or the policies and regulations of your county or state may be different.

The second section requests specific data on staff influenza vaccinations between October 1st, 2022, and March 31st, 2023.

Easy Reporting has pre-calculated the values for each input box in this section, based on your facility's list of staff included in the 2022-2023 annual influenza summary and their corresponding influenza vaccinations. You have the option to either use these calculated values or enter your own values based on your facility's internal records.

Please note that the "Other contract personnel" category is optional; you may enter "0" if you prefer not to provide this information.

If your facility joined Easy Reporting after October 1st, 2022, and you are missing vaccination records for staff at your facility between October 1st, 2022, and March 31st, 2023, please contact Easy Reporting support for assistance.

Question 10

How many healthcare personnel in the following categories worked in your facility between October 1, 2022 and March 31, 2023?

Question 11

How many healthcare personnel from question 10 in the following categories have received an influenza vaccine at this healthcare facility since the influenza vaccine became available?

Question 12

How many healthcare personnel from question 10 in the following categories have provided a written report or documentation of influenza vaccination outside this healthcare facility since the influenza vaccine became available?

Question 13

How many healthcare personnel from question 10 in the following categories had a medical contraindication to the influenza vaccine?

Question 14

How many healthcare personnel from question 10 in the following categories declined to receive the influenza vaccine?

Question 15

How many healthcare personnel in the following categories with unknown vaccination status, or criteria not met for questions 11-14 above?

Question 15 is automatically calculated for you based on the answers provided in questions 10 to 14.

Upon completing all the required questions in the summary, simply click the green "Submit to NHSN" button located at the bottom of the page. After submission, you will be redirected to the "Annual Submission" page, where you can view the status of your submission as Easy Reporting submits it to the NHSN and verifies the submission with them.

We hope this training video has provided you with clear and comprehensive guidance on completing your 2022-2023 annual influenza summary and submitting it through Easy Reporting. If you encounter any issues or require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact Easy Reporting support. Thank you for using Easy Reporting, and we wish you continued success in maintaining a healthy and safe environment at your facility.