Organization Award: Ambulatory Care
Denver, Colorado
For its initiative:
“Improving Pediatric Immunization Rates in a Safety-Net Delivery System: Serving the Vulnerable Populations”
Click here for initiative profile
By assessing the childhood immunization rates at its primary care sites, staff at Denver Health and Hospital Authority could see that low immunization rates were putting the community at risk for outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Therefore, the organization decided to take on the challenge of providing immunizations to high-risk pediatric patients who are difficult to track.
Organization staff developed an immunization registry to track patients, to regularly assess immunization levels, and to improve the on-time delivery of vaccines in the organization’s primary care clinics. Staff also generated standing orders, streamlined the process of vaccine delivery, and produced reminder and recall lists for childhood vaccines at all primary care sites. In addition, by sharing site-specific data, Denver Health encouraged friendly competition and team responsibility for performance improvement. The success of this program is reflected in its results.
Achievements
- Immunization rates improved by 46 percent in 2-year-old patients and 26 percent in 1-year-old patients.