KEYWORDS:
Vaccines for Children Program, Vaccine Accountability, Standards for Pediatric Immunization Practices, Site Visits, Quality Assurance, Immunization Registry, CASA/AFIX/VFC Visits

BACKGROUND:
Promoting accepted standards for immunization practices in both public and private sectors of the medical community is key to achieving and sustaining high immunization coverage. Reviewing standards for immunization practices is the foundation for provider quality functions conducted by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. Planning, implementation, and
evaluation experiences of the provider quality assurance functions conducted during 2001 have been documented.

OBJECTIVE(S):
To define and describe planning, implementation, and evaluation strategies used to conduct provider quality assurance functions among immunization providers in
South Carolina during 2001. To define and describe discovery findings from the provider quality assurance reviews and the participants’ experiences. Employ
knowledge gained from these experiences to improve the process and function.

METHOD(S):
Establish validity and reliability for a practice review tool consisting of the 18 standards for pediatric immunization practices, and select standards for adolescent
and adult immunization practices. Conduct staff training on the use of the practice review tool. Analyze both findings from the tool and the experiences of
reviewers and providers who participated in the quality reviews.

RESULT(S):
Pending

CONCLUSIONS(S):
Pending

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Describe methods, results, and knowledge gained from one state’s experiences implementing provider quality assurance functions which focus on reviews of accepted standards for pediatric immunization practices.