Economic Order Quantity – Washington's New Approach to Implementation

Background: Washington has been participating as a pilot site for Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) Continuous Quality Improvement.    In the past, we have worked with Local Health Jurisdictions (LHJ) as one large group or with individual LHJs to implement changes in vaccine ordering and management practices.  With EOQ, we decided to take a slightly different approach and launched a multi-pronged training plan that has focused on increased communication and working with smaller groups of LHJs.

Setting: Washington State

Population: Washington State Local Health Jurisdictions and providers

Project Description: The goal is to implement EOQ best practices with VFC providers in Washington.  We started communicating with LHJs through EOQ tips of the week. These tips provided introductory information that created awareness and interest well before the implementation had officially begun.  We also presented LHJs with a friendly competition to focus attention on specific areas of vaccine ordering.  To simplify the process of balancing orders across the state, we have taken a regional approach to assign order timing and scheduled LHJs for implementation by these assignments.  We’re holding conference calls to prepare each group of LHJs and providing materials and tools to support them and their providers.  We’re also updating our website and CHILD Profile Immunization Registry to support EOQ practices.

Results/Lessons Learned: Early communication and working with smaller groups of LHJs has lead to more active feedback cycles. LHJs are receiving information in manageable amounts and have ample opportunity to ask questions and prepare themselves and their providers for change.  EOQ Challenges have created awareness and helped to make small changes that have produced great results.  The regional approach has simplified the implementation for the state and has made it easier to address issues and adapt to changing needs.