KEYWORDS:
Immunization Registry, Medical Home, Outreach Workers, Data Use Example
BACKGROUND:
Pediatric care, well baby care and immunizations are important factors in the first years of a child’s life. Many children see multiple health care providers between birth and 2 years of age. Many of these children are “lost” and under-immunized.
OBJECTIVE(S):
(1) Utilize outreach workers to locate “lost” children as defined by the health care provider. (2) Update the medical home and immunization records of each child in the CHECK Project Immunization Registry System. (3) Determine insurance status of each child and to offer insurance to the parents of the uninsured child.
METHOD(S):
Five private health care provider offices agreed to participate with a medical home outreach project. A list of children for each practice was abstracted from the Immunization Registry. The health care provider reviewed the list and identified the “lost children”. Then the list of “lost” children was given to outreach workers to identify insurance or social service needs.
RESULT(S):
Of 2,473 children, 469 (19%) were defined as “lost” children by their health care provider. Twenty-two percent of the “lost” children’s parents returned postcards with their current health care provider, 11% had no forwarding address, and 71% were contacted by outreach workers. Immunization registry records indicating the immunization status of children at two years of age improved from 25% to 90%.
CONCLUSIONS(S):
Involving health care providers in identifying their “lost’ children and utilizing outreach workers locate the “lost” children can be an effective means to update records in an immunization registry and link children to their medical home.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Identify strategies and methods to locate “lost” children and bring them back to their medical home.
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