KEYWORDS:
Adult immunization; long-term care facilities; geriatric population
BACKGROUND:
Most registry goals and activities focus on the pediatric population and their health care providers. But there are many benefits for registries in working with seniors and long term care facilities, since VPD morbidity and mortality are generally higher in adults than children, and high pneumococcal vaccine coverage rates in particular have proven elusive. This presentation will highlight issues involved in working with the providers and facilities that serve the geriatric population. What are the benefits for the providers and facilities? For public health and the immunization program? What challenges are unique to tracking adult vaccines? Can registries be used effectively to track occupational immunizations in facility staff?
OBJECTIVE:
To share the lessons learned from the long-term care demonstration sites in Minnesota.
METHOD:
Long-term care facilities of different sizes and configurations were recruited to serve as demonstration sites for registry use in Minnesota.
RESULT:
Working with long-term care offers exciting opportunities and unique challenges.
CONCLUSION:
As registries get closer to reaching their childhood immunization and saturation goals, they can look to the other end of the life span to expand their benefits to new providers and organizations, and to make new contributions to reaching public health goals.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Learn the similarities and differences between recruiting pediatric and geriatric providers as registry users.
Handout (.doc format, 24.0 kb)
Handout (.ppt format, 280.0 kb)
Back to It's Not Just For Kids Anymore - Expansion of Immunization Registries to Adult Populations
Back to The 2003 Immunization Registry Conference (October 27-29, 2003)