BACKGROUND:
Two major factors contributed toward a perceived need for intervention in King County, Washington: 1) deficiencies in many local medical practices discovered while conducting Vaccines for Children (VFC) site visits, and 2) declining child immunization rates in the county. In response, Public Health - Seattle & King County and Community Pediatrics Foundation of Washington are collaborating on a unique project to provide supplemental education on immunization practice to immunization practitioners.

OBJECTIVE:
To determine if an immunization education program for immunization practitioners improves quality of immunization practice and timeliness of immunizations.
To gain knowledge about the benefits of VFC site visits alone for improvement of immunization practice and timeliness of immunizations.

METHOD:
An educational program is underway for immunization providers called Training on Immunizations for Practitioners and Staff (TIPS), using a public health agency and provider association collaboration and an on-site, peer-based training format. To evaluate the program, in a collaborative effort that includes the University of Washington, 75 VFC sites are being recruited to participate in the TIPS study. Sites are randomized into intervention and control groups, separately for pediatric and family practice. Intervention groups will receive an educational session. All groups will receive a routine and subsequent follow-up VFC site visit including the CDC Assessment Feedback Incentives eXchange (AFIX) immunization record assessment

RESULT:
Initial response to the educational sessions from immunization practitioners is very positive. At the conclusion of the study we will measure quality of immunization practice and immunization delay, comparing the intervention and control groups.

CONCLUSION:
TIPS is a unique educational program targeting immunization practitioners, established as an enhancement to VFC site visits. We anticipate positive results from the evaluation.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Learn about an educational project targeting immunization practitioners and understand the methods used in a study to measure effectiveness.