KEYWORDS:
Data use, data quality/completeness, twenty-month follow-up
BACKGROUND:
The Utah Statewide Immunization Information System (USIIS) has been increasing the patient base for the past five years. As of June 10, 2003, the total number of patient records was 1,179,080. The increase of patient records has made USIIS a valuable tool for immunization providers and health plans. Intermountain Health Care (IHC) has used USIIS for HEDIS data collection since July 1999. They have supported the USIIS WebKIDS application since July 2001.
OBJECTIVE:
Show how the use of immunization registry data improves follow-up procedures for twenty-month-old children enrolled in a health plan, and therefore, increases the immunization rate.
METHOD:
IHC has done patient follow-up for twenty-month-old children for the past few years. Reports were sent to physicians monthly with a list of children who were missing the 12-18 month immunizations for DTP, Hib, and MMR. The original follow-up report that was sent to physicians was generated from billing data exclusively. In November 2002, IHC began using USIIS data in addition to billing data to determine which children were missing immunizations.
RESULT:
For the six months previous to using USIIS, the average monthly cohort of children missing immunizations was four hundred ninety seven. During the first six months using USIIS, the average monthly cohort of children was three hundred ninety three, for a 20.9% decrease in the number of twenty-month-old health plan members who were missing immunizations.
CONCLUSION:
Using immunization registry data improves completeness of immunization records for health plan members and helps increase immunization rates.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Understand how use of registry data can improve quality/completeness of immunization data for a health plan.
Back to Registries As Tools for Provider Quality Assurance and Clinic Assessment
Back to The 2003 Immunization Registry Conference (October 27-29, 2003)