Marlene Lugg, Kaiser Permanente, 13652 Cantara St, South 1 Bldg, Panorama City, CA, USA and Allan S. Lieberthal, Panorama City, Kaiser Permanente, 13652 Cantara St. South 1 Bldg, Panorama City, CA, USA.
BACKGROUND:
Many changes here occurred in the immunization schedule(s) over the past decades. The inevitable confusion arising out of schedule changes can be minimized by careful pre-panning and provider education. Staff turnover also necessitates training and mentoring.
OBJECTIVE:
To describe the provider and staff training and updating procedures used at Southern California Kaiser Permanente (which serves over 3 million members) for excellence in immunization services.
METHOD:
New staff are trained in several Kaiser Permanente legacy systems, including KITS (the immunization tracking system) which now contains 25 million entries. The initial KITS training is given by either a KITS coordinator at each medical center area, or by the Computer Training and Support Department. In either case, follow-up and monitoring is carried out by the KITS coordinator.
KITS coordinators monitor compliance and accuracy monthly and quarterly, using a random sample of records from patients seen. If errors are found, the provider/staff are coached one-on-one, and group in-services are offered where necessary.
Nurses also attend a yearly all-day update session covering several aspects of nursing. Including immunization practices and KITS.
Physicians have immunization education as part of their regular education sessions and in-services as needed.
RESULT:
The compliance and accuracy monitoring methods will be discussed. Over the past 8 years, the number of omissions and errors in recording immunizations in KITS has decreased dramatically. At some centers, the percent of errors dropped from 45% to less than 4%, with routine monitoring and education.
CONCLUSION:
Initial and continuing education are imperative in order to keep providers and staff up-to-date in immunization practices and documentation, in order to offer excellent immunization services.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Persons attending will learn effective methods of initial and continuing education and mentoring of physicians and nursing staff in order to promote excellence in immunization services.