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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Marlene M. Lugg, DrPH, Panorama CIty Medical Center, Southern California Kaiser Permanente, 13652 Cantara Street, South 1 Bldg, Panorama City, CA 91306, (818) 375-3078, marlene.m.lugg@kp.org
Southern California Kaiser Permanente serves 3 million members in 10 medical centers and 60 medical offices throughout Southern California. A centralized immunization tracking system (KITS) is accessible from all departments, and currently contains over 19 million immunization entries. In spite of community and in-house immunization awareness campaigns, the immunization rate for Kaiser members 65 years and older remained unacceptably low.
METHODS: The Kaiser Permanente Membership System and KITS were searched by computer in order to obtain Pneumoccocal, Td, and influenza vaccination status. Clinical charts were reviewed for these who were not up-to-date. When immunizations were found, they were “back-entered” into KITS. Influenza immunization clinics also offered pneumococcal immunizations to appropriate patients. In addition, the KITS system was modified to print out an alert to providers when persons 65 and over who did not have pneumoccocal immunizations presented for care (provider reminder).
RESULTS: The initial computerized matching of members with KITS records indicated that only 56 percent of persons aged 65 and older were appropriately immunized with Pneumoccocal vaccine. However, KITS was first implemented in 1995, and immunizations given before then were only entered when persons subsequently showed up for care. Chart review increased the pneumococcal vaccination rate to just over 80%. The addition of provider reminder raised the immunization rate to 90%.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Registry,
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Kaiser Permanente of Southern California
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.