Ticket, Passport, and e-ICVP: IIS Recruitment of Travel Clinics

Background:
The San Diego Immunization Branch maintains a county-wide list and has been a referral source for the public to locate private travel immunization clinics for vaccines needed for international travel. Although these travel clinic providers serve people of all ages, they previously had not been the focus of recruitment efforts by SDIR.

Objectives:
Establish the use of SDIR by travel clinics in San Diego County that give both travel vaccines and routine vaccines to adults and children. The recruitment of travel clinics to SDIR would ensure that all vaccines given to an individual would be recorded on the official state immunization record as well as the International Certificate of Vaccination and Prophylaxis (ICVP).

Methods:
An annual survey sent to travel clinics in San Diego County confirmed hours of operation, languages spoken, immunizations given, and assessed interest in using an immunization registry.

Results:
Of the 36 private clinics and one retail pharmacy chain surveyed, approximately 50% of clinics give routine vaccinations, and less than 50% have no age restrictions. Sixteen sites (44%) indicated interest in using a vaccine registry and 19 (53%) indicated that they would use a registry if they could print the ICVP. As a result of the survey, two clinics have signed the MOU, and one other is in the process of signing the MOU.

Conclusions:
All Travel clinics in San Diego County are using handwritten immunization records. Survey results indicate that many travel clinics would use a web-based immunization registry if they can print the ICVP from the registry, and share data on other immunizations provided.