BACKGROUND:
The Raising Immunizations Through Education (RITE) program is a peer based educational pilot study. The goal of the RITE program is to increase immunization coverage levels in the Houston area by decreasing missed opportunities, utilizing office tools and reducing office barriers.

OBJECTIVE:
To report best practices that pediatric and family practices are willing to implement to increase their immunization coverage levels.

METHOD:
Pediatric (n=91) and family (n=98) practices were randomized into an intervention or control group. All intervention groups were given the presentation. The presentation was divided into four sections; missed opportunities, available office tools, reducing barriers, and development of an action plan for the physician’s practice. Physicians and their staff chose individualized best practice steps to implement in their office to increase immunization coverage levels. We defined best practice steps for a physician’s office as an action plan.

RESULT:
Preliminarily we looked at 67 action plans. The following actions were listed the most frequently: Implement a reminder system, 48%; check immunization status during all visits, including sick visits, 39%; implement a recall visit for patients that missed their appointment, 24%; increase the number of vaccines given according to the number of vaccines that were due, 24%; and utilize Vaccine Information Statements, 24%. Less frequent activities listed were utilizing a standard immunization form, purging inactive charts, and assessing their own immunization rates.

CONCLUSION:
Educational programs to increase immunization rates must focus on an efficient way to implement a standardized reminder/recall system. One such way is to promote registry involvement. Additionally, offering free chart pull assessments or a more efficient way to assess immunization rates should be considered.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
To learn best practice strategies to increase immunization coverage levels.