KEYWORDS:
adult immunizations, partnership, coalition building,

BACKGROUND:
Facilitating statewide action coalitions helps to build relationships, offer opportunities for stakeholders with similar interests to come together, and provides a common goal for organizations with similar objectives. The Center for Healthcare Quality has facilitated the building of a statewide immunization coalition with state and local health departments, the carrier, area drug companies, and the state pharmacists association with a backdrop of action toward a common goal, producing a vaccine supply and reimbursement workshop. The coalition offers an opportunity to share ideas, give all stakeholders a voice, and to provide a platform for discussion of potential projects to help improve immunization in Tennessee.

OBJECTIVE:
The objectives of the coalition was to improve utilization of flu vaccine for the 2002-2003 season.

METHOD:
CHQ has followed the partnership phases described by IPRO, the health promotion literature, and the Texas Health Department to structure the calls with the workshop towards completed development of a mission statement, and a common definition of goals and objectives. CHQ provided information on coalition building and facilitated bi-weekly calls to encourage participation and ownership, recognize the partners in the development of promotional materials, and get their feedback and suggestions on all generated materials.

RESULT:
CHQ reached over 150 physicians offices, pharmacists, and clinics. From this the audience will be able to develop action-based coalitions.

CONCLUSION:
This method was affective in getting buy-in from key stakeholders and raising awareness across the state.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
The objectives of this session are 1) to present the audience with tools that can aid in putting together immunization coalitions with state organizations. 2) To present an example of one coalition that worked.