Monday, October 18, 2004 - 11:15 AM
3

Using the Address Correction Service to Maintain Address Integrity

BACKGROUND:
Statewide registries often send large amounts of mail for reminder recall, and the case of Washington State, for materials to promote early childhood health. Not all the mail can be successfully delivered to the current address because it is invalid. If a Change of Address form has been filed with the Post Office the new address is available through their Address Correction Service (ACS).

OBJECTIVE:
Update patient address data with corrected addresses from the USPS ACS.

METHOD:
Every mailing sent includes a 16 character code on the address label called the Keyline. The Keyline is a composition of the patients unique identifier, and an identifier for the mailing. The 16th character is a check. Weekly a file is downloaded containing information on all forwarded and non-deliverable mailings. The file is processed by the registry to update patient addresses. Any mail that could not be delivered is marked and the patients address is flagged as invalid. When a new address comes into the registry any previously undeliverable mail is sent again.

RESULT:
The use of the ACS has reduced the amount of manual processing required for physically returned mail. It has also greatly increased the accuracy of the addresses and thus reduced the amount of undeliverable mail.

CONCLUSION:
ACS is a valuable tool that can be used to maintain data integrity when doing any sort of mass mailings. It allows you to know more accurately who is being successfully reached by your mailing efforts.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
1. Describe the process for designing and implementing the ACS import.
2. Describe any potential issues that can arrive by using the system.

  Recorded presentation

See more of A Registry's Role in Health Education
See more of The 2004 Immunization Registry Conference