Address Management through Immunization Reminder Mailings and How It Contributes to Increased Data Quality in IIS

Background:
CHILD Profile, Washington State's Immunization Registry, has a Health Promotion component which functions as a centralized enhanced immunization reminder system for children birth to age 6. Health Promotion mailings are sent to parents at 17 age-specific intervals with reminders of immunizations and well-child visits due, as well as information about nutrition, growth, development, safety and other important issues. The Health Promotion Module contains a number of tools for managing patient addresses and contributing to improved data quality in the IIS. As of 9/30/08, over 430,000 children under age 6 were on the mailing list, with approximately 27,000 mailings being sent each week to children in the age-eligibility range.

Objectives:
Discuss the impact of Health Promotion address management tools in improving IIS data quality.

Methods:
Electronic files from the USPS Address Correction Service (ACS) and birth records/updates from Vital Statistics are downloaded weekly. Health Promotion Module data quality reports are run weekly and corrections are made by staff.

Results:
On a weekly basis, Health Promotion staff can expect to receive the following updates:
o 2000+ address updates from the USPS
o 5 -30 updates from the Early Notification of Childhood Deaths (ENCD)
o 2250 birth records/updates from Vital Statistics
o 50 notifications for incomplete addresses
o 15 - 20 unusable names

Conclusions:
CHILD Profile's Health Promotion component provides timely, up-to-date demographic data to the system, which benefits users, and serves as an early-warning system for potential data quality issues. The IIS benefits immensely from weekly data updates, ongoing data quality review and updates/corrections made for mailing purposes. The Health Promotion component benefits from access to the extensive CPIR patient database and tools to track and monitor project participation and success.