Increase Childhood Immunizations
MaineHealth continues to collaborate with organizations to implement clinical, community, and policy strategies to increase on-time childhood immunization rates in Maine.
Results of the 2014 National Immunization Survey (NIS) released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that an estimated 85% (95% CI ±5.0) of Maine’s children aged 19-35 months were up-to-date on a combined series of seven vaccines* , indicating that Maine’s 2014 childhood immunization coverage rate is significantly higher than that of the nation (estimated at 72%) and of 30 other states last year.
These data also represent a significant increase from Maine’s estimated rates in 2012 (73%) and 2013 (71%). They also show that the MaineHealth Health Index childhood immunization target of having ≥82% of children aged 19-35 months up-to-date on the aforementioned series by 2016 has been achieved. These increases represent an impressive upward trend and indicate that strategies to increase the percentage of pediatric patients fully vaccinated according to the recommended immunization schedule are working!
Congratulations to providers, clinical and administrative staff, and leadership for your hard work in surpassing this goal!
Although the 2014 NIS results are promising and exciting, we must not lose sight of the fact that ensuring children are safe from vaccine-preventable diseases is going to take continued vigilance and effort across the entire state.
*series of 7 vaccines include ≥4 DTaP, ≥3 IPV, ≥1 MMR, full HIB series, ≥ 3 HepB, ≥ 1 VAR, ≥ 4 PCV
If you would like more information about MaineHealth’s Childhood Immunization Program, please contact Kate Colby, Program Manager at MaineHealth or visit Vax Maine Kids.
Clinical Strategies
- Provide training, assessments, feedback and incentives for providers.
- Expand use of provider reminders and standing orders.
- Expand access to vaccination services, data and combination vaccines.
- Provide vaccine education during prenatal visits.
- Expand use of 2-way communication between Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and ImmPact.
- Expand the ease and use of ImmPact across all sites.
- Maintain provider reimbursement.
- Implement patient reminder and recall systems and system-based enhancements.
Community Strategies
- Engage and educate vaccine-hesitant families.
- Implement evidence-based interventions that focus on:
- Increasing community demand for vaccines.
- Enhancing access to vaccination services.
- Improve community engagement in interventions.
Policy Strategies
- Advocate for and implement policies that expand access, improve monitoring, enhance requirements and increase vaccination rates.
- Improve regional surveillance efforts.
- Logic Model: Increase Childhood Immunizations
Logic Model – A roadmap or diagram showing chain results connecting activities to the expected initial outputs, and intermediate and final outcomes. It provides a basis for developing the performance measurement and evaluation strategies
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- America’s Health Rankings
America’s Health Rankings compares the health of all 50 states to each other. This ranking tool is used as a benchmark for MaineHealth’s Health Index.
- Community Commons
Community Commons can help with your Community Health Needs Assessment
- Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) funded by OneMaine Health Collaborative 2010
- County Health Rankings – Maine by County 2014
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- County Health Rankings – Visit Website
Look up your county’s rankings, learn about our methods, and download the data you need. This ranking tool is used as a benchmark for MaineHealth’s Health Index.
First STEPS Initiative: Phase 1 Final Evaluation Report
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- Health Index Report – 2014
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- Health Index Report – 2015
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- Healthy People 2020 Objectives
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