Partnership in Action: Development of a Medical Home Brochure for Dissemination through Immunization Sites in Colorado

Learning Objectives for this Presentation:
By the end of the presentation participants will be able to identify the importance of the medical home for maintaining optimal immunization and health outcomes, outline resources for inclusion in a medical home brochure, and identify key stakeholders necessary to form a successful statewide work group.

Background:
Although public health departments and immunization outreach services reduce barriers and provide necessary access to childhood vaccinations, patient utilization of a medical home is ideal for maintaining optimal health outcomes and providing consistency in medical record and vaccine documentation.

Setting:
Various public health venues including clinics, outreach, and educational settings.

Population:
The state of Colorado has 4,804,353 residents including 1,202,213 children under the age of 18 years.

Project Description:
The Colorado Immunization Program facilitates a Childcare and School Immunization work group with statewide participation. Work group participants in school, child care, and primary care settings saw the need to inform parents of the importance of not only receiving immunizations but also establishment of a medical home for their children. One of the members of the work group was selected to lead the development of this brochure and key stakeholders provided expertise in creating the content of this brochure which would be distributed at sites where immunization-only visits were occurring (health departments, nursing services, immunization outreaches, etc.). The team that created the brochure met via teleconference and included statewide options for resources, insurance and medical home descriptions.

Results/Lessons Learned:
An important brochure promoting the medical home, immunizations, and the provision of a variety of resources was a useful interagency collaborative that utilized the expertise of many immunization stakeholders. The inclusion of local HCPF would have been useful and is now included in the revision and update team.