Monday, October 27, 2003 - 4:45 PM
3867

This presentation is part of B10: Registries as a Tool in Public Health Delivery

Disseminating Evidence-Based Strategies Associated With Improved Immunization Rates

Denise H. Benkel1, Stephen Friedman1, Amy E. Metroka1, Peter Margolis2, Alison Chi3, Arthur H. Fierman4, and Kenneth Bromberg5. (1) Bureau of Immunization, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 2 Lafayette Street, 19th floor, New York, NY, USA, (2) National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality, University of North Carolina, Campus Box 7226, 720 Airport Hill Rd, Chapel Hill, NC, USA, (3) Citywide Immunization Registry, Medical and Health Research Association of New York City, Inc, 2 Lafayette Street, 19th floor, New York, NY, USA, (4) New York University School of Medicine, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY, USA, (5) Pediatric Infectious Diseases, SUNY Downstate, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, USA


KEYWORDS:
Registry, Quality Improvement, Peer-to-Peer Spread

BACKGROUND:
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) Bureau of Immunization and the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality (NICHQ) are partnering on a citywide quality improvement project whose goal is to disseminate concrete and sustainable evidence-based strategies to improve immunization rates.

OBJECTIVE:
1) To create and refine strategies that enable effective dissemination of best practices to all providers of immunizations to children in NYC; 2) to create methods that facilitate peer-to-peer spread of improvements in immunization delivery; and 3) to encourage providers to engage in self-assessment by providing tools and training that would reduce the need for large-scale external assessments.

METHOD:
In Phase I of the project, NYC DOHMH and NICHQ staff directed a collaborative of pediatric practices whose goals included developing systems for improving immunization rates (part of the Education and Quality Improvement Project [EQuIP]). Phase II of the planned project is the development of a document that will provide concrete ideas as to how best to “spread” these successful systems to all NYC practices. Phase III involves the identification of champions who will disseminate the concepts identified in Phase II. Phase IV involves the implementation of specific dissemination strategies.

RESULT:
Identified successful improvement strategies from Phase I include use of the Citywide Immunization Registry, coordinating immunization reminders with WIC visits, using preventive services prompting sheets, and telephone reminder-recall systems for preventive services visits. Phases II-IV of the project are currently in the planning stages.

CONCLUSION:
A collaboration among primary care practices can lead to the creation of immunization improvement strategies and a core group of provider innovators to disseminate these strategies.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
1) Successful immunization improvement strategies that were developed in a collaborative; and 2) proposed strategies to influence all NYC health providers to adopt the necessary methodologies to improve immunization rates.

Handout (.ppt format, 477.0 kb)

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