Saarlas, Kristin N, Edwards KC, Wild E, and Richmond,
P., “Developing Performance Measures for Immunization Registries,”
Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 2003, 9(1) 47-57.
Funded from 1998 to 2000 by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
to foster development of state- and community-based immunization
registries, the All Kids Count program undertook the development,
implementation and evaluation of indicators of immunization registries
in order to measure registries’ progress toward their goal
of becoming fully operational. The quantitative performance indicators
monitored the progress of 16 All Kids Count grantees in four broad
areas of immunization registry development: database maturity; timeliness
of data capture; provider participation; and immunization coverage
levels.
This article published in the Journal of Public Health Management
and Practice discusses the indicators used to measure the progress
of the 16 state and local immunization registries, as well as the
applicability of this experience to the development of performance
measures for other public health information systems.
Results were reviewed to determine if 1) the indicators measured
immunization registry progress, 2) the results could be compared
across All Kids count projects, and 3) other immunization registries
could use the indicators. The study found that the AKC performance
indicators provide a useful template for registries to measure the
maturity and progress of information system development, although
there are significant challenges to formulating generic indicators
that are comparable across multiple systems. It acknowledges that
as registries mature during the coming years, the indicators will
need to be expanded to include other performance measures.
This paper concludes that as states begin linking immunization
registries to other information systems, indicators will play an
important role in informing funding agencies on progress and achievements
of public health information systems.
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