KEYWORDS:
Childhood Immunizations
Quality Improvement
Immunization Registry
BACKGROUND:
Healthy People 2010 established a goal of increasing the complete vaccine series immunization rates of two-year olds to 80%. Rates considerably below this goal were found in a baseline retrospective audit of the medical charts of two-year-olds conducted in May 2000 at the Racine Family Practice Program (RFP) of the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) of the Medical College of Wisconsin. The DFCM partnered with the Wisconsin Immunization Program and the local public health department to perform the audits and improve systems and immunization rates.
OBJECTIVE(S):
To meet or exceed the national childhood immunization goal at RFP by implementing system changes and quality improvement interventions.
METHOD(S):
The initial audit results were presented to the RFP childhood immunization team at a quality improvement workshop. The team developed a series of focused, interdisciplinary system changes including introducing the state registry system, adding registry-generated reports to charts on any visit, and training faculty and staff. After twelve months, a re-audit of RFP's immunization records was conducted.
RESULT(S):
Childhood immunization rates more than doubled, from 41% to 84%. Despite late starts of the immunization series, accelerated protocols were successfully implemented. There were no missed opportunities to immunize, compared with 10% in the baseline audit.
CONCLUSIONS(S):
Use of the immunization registry with focused quality improvement interventions and system changes in this clinic resulted in significant increases in childhood immunization rates.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
1. List reasons for failures to immunize.
2. Identify methods to improve childhood immunization rates.
3. Develop effective immunization registry applications for your clinic.
Back to Grow: Resources and Funding — Part I
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Back to The 2002 Immunization Registry Conference of CDC