Michael L. Washington1, Thomas Kontuly
2, Wu Xu
3, Christine Perfili
4, William E Cosgrove
5, and Julia Brogli
5. (1) National Immunization Program, Centers for Disease Control and, 1600 Clifton Rd., NE, MS E-62, Atlanta, USA, (2) Department of Geography, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, (3) Office of Health Care Statistics, Utah Department of Health, P.O. Box 144004, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, (4) Bureau of Vital Statistics, USIIS Program, Utah Department of Health, PO Box 142001, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, (5) Cottonwood Clinic, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
KEYWORDS:
Immunization Registry
Staff Utilization
Patient Flow
BACKGROUND:
Little is known of the impact of functioning immunization registries on patient flow or provider availability, crucial features of any health care delivery system. Concern has been expressed that, due to efforts required for data submission, registries might require extra resources and therefore burden clinics. This study assessed, via time study and simulation, the impact of a registry on a typical pediatric clinic.
OBJECTIVE(S):
To determine, at a typical private pediatric clinic, how registry development impacts immunization services, length of patient stay, and staff utilization.
METHOD(S):
A pediatric clinic in Salt Lake City, Utah agreed to participate in the study. A flowchart of the pediatric clinic was created. From the flow chart, the research team identified and collected data for the simulation over a few days, and compared pre- and post-registry system results. A model of the pre- and post-registry system was created, and results from both systems were compared.
RESULT(S):
The simulation indicated that a registry system would have a minimal impact on the clinic workload. The time patients spent in the clinic and with personnel stayed relatively the same. Nurse utilization rate increased because the post-registry system was a dual tracking system, electronic and paper. However, in the simulation in which we remove the paper record activities, the utilization rates drop closer to the pre-registry system.
CONCLUSIONS(S):
Immunization registries can benefit, rather than burden, the clinic's operations. Although no decrease in patient time or utilization was identified, other benefits were observed during this study. The clinic found hepatitis B vaccination (HBV) birth immunization records. Finding this information prevented the provider from assuming HBV was not given at birth.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Observe the immunization registry?s impact on personal and patient in a pediatric clinic
Identify the benefits of an immunization registry
Learn about a method to evaluate staff utilization and patient flow
See more of Immunization Registry Impact on Provider Operations
See more of The 36th National Immunization Conference
