All Kids Count: April 1999 Snapshot





		APRIL 1999 Immunization registry news from All Kids Count. Issue Number 2 April 21, 1999 Welcome to SnapShots, a newsletter about the progress, best practices and accomplishments of immunization registries across the country. We invite you to share news about your registry. Email us *SnapShots@allkidscount.org* or call us at (404) 687-5615 with information about a successful programmatic or technical innovation, major accomplishment or milestone that your registry has reached. SnapShots is sent to subscribers monthly by All Kids Count. Current and past issues also are available on the All Kids Count Website: *www.allkidscount.org* All Kids Count is a national network of demonstration projects working to develop and implement community-based immunization registries for infants and toddlers. Collectively, All Kids Count projects represent the country's most advanced base of experience with immunization registries. All Kids Count is supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with direction and technical assistance from The Task Force for Child Survival and Development. HEADLINES SURGEON GENERAL/CDC DIRECTOR BRIEFED ON REGISTRIES ROTARY CLUBS RALLY AROUND CHILDHOOD IMMUNIZATION INITIATIVE CUSTOMER THE FOCUS IN WASHINGTON OKLAHOMA REGISTRY PARTNERS WITH HOME VISITORS PROGRAM ALL KIDS COUNT WORKGROUP TAKES ON DATA QUALITY TRIPEDIA RECALL ILLUSTRATES REGISTRIES' BENEFITS REGISTRY DOUBLES DAYCARE IMMUNIZATION RATES IN ARIZONA WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? IMMUNIZATION CONFERENCE DRAFT AGENDA ONLINE SURGEON GENERAL, CDC DIRECTOR BRIEFED ON NVAC REGISTRY RECOMMENDATIONS Surgeon General David Satcher, MD, PhD, and CDC Director Jeffrey P. Koplan, MD, MPH, were briefed in April on the NVAC recommendations and action steps for a network of community- and state-based immunization registries by representatives from the CDC, the National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO) and the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) workgroup on registries. Drs. Satcher and Koplan were receptive to requests to help move forward the development of a national network of immunization registries. Dr. Satcher's support for registries will be captured on a video that will be shown at the All Kids Count Annual Immunization Registry Conference, April 25-27, in St. Paul, Minn. Back to Top ROTARY CLUBS RALLY AROUND CHILDHOOD IMMUNIZATION INITIATIVE Four Rotary Clubs in Wood County, WI, have taken the Regional Early Childhood Immunization Network Project (RECIN) under their wing. The Marshfield and Wisconsin Rapids Noon and Early Bird Rotary Clubs have pledged support to Wood County Public Health Department to assist with deployment of RECIN in both public and private immunization provider facilities. Funds are being used to offset the cost of registry fees for recording and storing the immunization data, assisting private provider facilities with entering historic immunization data, Internet connection costs, and small grants for computer hardware required for connecting to the registry. RECIN, developed by the private Marshfield Clinic, is used extensively throughout central and northern Wisconsin. The registry contains over 1.4 million immunizations on over 240,000 individuals. Contact: Tom Berg, *bergt@mfldclin.edu* Back to Top CUSTOMER THE FOCUS IN WASHINGTON Washington's CHILD Profile has developed a Customer Service Philosophy, and Policies and Procedures to guide staff interactions with providers. The Policies and Procedures detail the steps staff must take to assist providers (customers) in getting online with the registry, resolving concerns, documenting customer contact, informing customers of system changes; assessing customer satisfaction, and providing them with support and education. They also establish measurable goals for each step, i.e., "Answer Help Desk calls by 3rd ring" and "Notify customer service manager when problems cannot be resolved within 24 hours." Contact: Sherri Riddick, *sherry.riddick@shd.snohomish.wa.gov.* Back to Top OKLAHOMA REGISTRY PARTNERS WITH HOME VISITORS PROGRAM First-time expectant mothers in Oklahoma now are visited at home by a Children First nurse who provides them with information about children's health, including a discussion of immunizations, safety and child development. At birth, the child is enrolled in the registry. The Oklahoma immunization registry (OSIIS) then provides Children First with data about children up to age 2 who are behind in their shots, so that a nurse can follow-up with a home visit. In 1998, 2,452 mothers were enrolled in the program, which is now one year old. Contact: Don Blose (405) 271-4073 or Annette Jacobi (405)271-4477.. Back to Top ALL KIDS COUNT WORKGROUP TAKES ON DATA QUALITY A centralized resource on data quality issues is being planned by a new workgroup that includes All Kids Count registry projects and two members from the Yale University Center for Medical Informatics. The 14-member Data Quality Workgroup, headed by Barbara Canavan, Program Manager for ALERT, the Oregon state immunization registry, will be reviewing best practices in resolving data quality problems and developing a "library" of resources on these issues. The library ultimately will be available to all registries through the Internet. Issues that may be addressed include de-duplication, inaccurate data entry, system edit checks, incomplete billing system data and more. But before they can provide answers, the workgroup first needs to know the questions. If you have a burning interest in data quality issues and are highly motivated to be an active work group participant, please contact Barbara Canavan, *Barbara_C_CANAVAN@ohdmail.hr.state.or.us* Back to Top TRIPEDIA RECALL ILLUSTRATES REGISTRIES' BENEFITS The ability of a registry to recall patients is invaluable from both clinical and cost standpoints. The January voluntary recall of the Tripedia DtaP vaccine lot # 0916490 due to insufficient potency of the diphtheria toxoid provided an excellent example of these benefits. Although there are currently no plans to recall children receiving this vaccine unless they are planning on traveling to an endemic area, the potential existed for recalling large numbers of children for re-vaccination. But how many and at what cost? In a presentation to CDC in March, John Fontanesi of Southern California Kaiser showed how KITS (Kaiser Immunization Tracking System) helped Southern California Kaiser in San Diego determine how many children would need to be recalled: only four. Before the existence of KITS, Kaiser's policy in this situation would have been to recall all children – as many as 15,000 - and re-vaccinate them because it was cheaper for them to re-vaccinate the children than to pull each child's record to determine the vaccine lot number. Among All Kids Count projects, two projects reported that over 7,600 children had been vaccinated from the recalled lot – a number with potentially large clinical and cost impacts. For information on KITS, contact John Fontanesi, 619-268-5620. Back to Top REGISTRY DOUBLES DAYCARE IMMUNIZATION RATES IN ARIZONA The simple donation of a single laptop computer has turned around the immunization picture of a daycare program. The network of six daycare programs serving 500 low income families in Phoenix (Maricopa County) had an immunization rate of 45% before The Arizona Partnership for Infant Immunization (TAPII) solicited the donation of a computer from Honeywell to help manage families' access to care. The Arizona State Immunization Information System (ASIIS), the state's immunization registry, then helped select the computer and provided the training on PC-Immunize, the registry's immunization tracking system. With the daycare centers' children in the registry, the immunization rate doubled to 90%, and cases of measles, pertussis, HepA and varicella were reduced to zero, despite county-wide outbreaks of three of those diseases during the same timeframe. Contact: Debbie McCune-Davis, TAPII, 602-252-0090. Back to Top WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? …. between shareware, freeware and public domain registry software? The answer to this question and more information about the pros and cons of these different types of registry software are available online through the CDC's National Immunization Program Registry Clearinghouse, *www.cdc.gov/nip/registry/faqs_sw.htm* Back to Top IMMUNIZATION CONFERENCE DRAFT AGENDA ONLINE The draft agenda for the 1999 National Immunization Conference, to be held June 22-25, in Dallas, TX, is now available online at *www.cdc.gov/nip/nic* . A registry plenary session is presently scheduled for 10 a.m., Wednesday, June 23. Back to Top We hope you will forward this e-mail to others who may be interested in receiving SnapShots. To SUBSCRIBE, *click here. This information will remain confidential and will not be sold or passed on to other parties. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please go to http://www.allkidscount.org/suscribe* . COMMENTS, PROBLEMS OR QUESTIONS, please contact us at: All Kids Count 750 Commerce Drive, Ste. 400 Decatur, GA 30030 Voice: 404-687-5615 FAX: 404-371-0415 Web: *http://www.allkidscount.org* E-mail: *snapshots@allkidscount.org* Back to Registry News & Information