KEYWORDS:
Vaccine Registry
Vaccine Recall
Hepatitis A Vaccine
BACKGROUND:
On December 10th, 2001, the Merck & Co., Inc. initiated a vaccine recall of Hepatitis A Vaccine (VAQTA). There were a total of 32 lots affected by the recall of the pediatric formulation, (25U/0.5 ml). The Southern California Kaiser Immunization Tracking System (KITS), contains over 20 million inoculations. KITS was used to identify, track, and outreach to the patients for revaccination
OBJECTIVE(S):
Patients will be revaccinated in a timely manner, making use of the immunization registry to assist with provider reminders and patient recall reminders.
METHOD(S):
KITS was queried to identify affected inoculation records.
The inoculation agent identification was changed to enable a provider to readily identify the vaccine as a recall vaccine.
A provider reminder was printed at the time of every visit to facilitate identification and revaccination of all affected patients.
Reminder letters were sent to all affected patients.
The revaccination rate was assessed to determine the effect of provider reminders and/or patient recall letters.
RESULT(S):
When Merck recalled the Hepatitis A Vaccine, over 100,000 patients had received the vaccine. 87,090 of these patients were children, ages 2-19. Prior to changing the inoculation records, approximately 1,500 patients were revaccinated per month. After the changes were implemented, the number of patients who received revaccinations tripled to 5,600. This significant increase occurred before patient reminder letters were sent home, so we expect a higher number of revaccinations.
CONCLUSIONS(S):
The immunization registry increases the chance of identifying a patient who needs to be revaccinated. This in turn assists in increasing the revaccination rate and minimizes missed opportunities for revaccination.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Understand the role of an immunization registry in a vaccine recall
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