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Northside recognized for child immunizations
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IMMUNIZATIONS: Dr. Lisa N. Weiss, director of the Family Medicine Residency Program for Western Reserve Care System at Forum Health Northside Medical Center in Youngstown, holds Albert Jenkins IV, who was born July 24. A system to help ensure that babies from birth to age 3 get the recommended immunizations is being implemented through the program.
YOUNGSTOWN
Childhood immunizations at Forum Health Northside Medical Center were up 17 percent last year over 2009.
The increase from 72 percent to 89 percent earned the Western Reserve Care System Family Residency immunization program there, headed by Dr. Lisa Weiss, the Most Improved Award from the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundations.
The local program faced several challenges, including the community’s low socioeconomic status and poor insurance coverage that contributed to childhood immunizations rates of only 72 percent.
Within one year, the program increased rates by 17 percent, to 89 percent, said Dr. Richard Roberts, president of AAFP Foundations.
The residency program took a number of steps to increase immunizations rates in children under age 3 in a number of ways, Dr. Roberts said in announcing the Most Improved Award.
Staff and physicians are required to check children’s immunizations at every doctor’s appointment, including checkups and sick visits.
The staff prints out the child’s immunization record and, using the electronic medical records and/or the state immunizations registry, compares them against the recommended immunization schedule.
If there are any missing immunizations, the staff advises administering the immunization during the same visit, Dr. Weiss said.
The residency program also educates patients and caregivers about the importance of immunizations by developing a position for a nurse educator to address the topic of immunizations with expecting parents as well as immediately after childbirth.
The staff also raises awareness by placing educational posters in high-traffic areas of the office and discussing immunizations during every doctor’s appointment.
Also, the program offers open scheduling to accommodate parents’ schedules. Physicians allot a couple of hours in the morning for parents who prefer to pre-schedule appointments, and the remainder of the day is open for same-day appointments and walk-ins.
The convenience of open scheduling has played a part in reducing the rate of appointment “no shows” from 25 percent to 8 percent, resulting in more children’s getting shots, Dr. Weiss said.
Also, she said, vaccines are given at all office visits, not just Well Child checks, and the vaccine record is printed out every time a child visits the office.
“We also have a nurse educator who sees prenatal patients and every family that visits our office, for whatever reason, with a child under the age of 2. She educates the families and pregnant moms on many things, including the importance of vaccines,” Dr. Weiss said.
The nurse educator also keeps track of children under age 3 and prenatal patients and those who are behind on vaccines or have not had preventive visits and sends them a reminder letter to come in to the Department of Family Medicine.
It is crucial for Dr. Weiss and her team to involve everyone in the program to better serve the health of the entire community, Dr. Roberts said.
“Dr. Weiss noted that there are some diseases that were virtually eradicated in the United States that are making a comeback because people are not getting immunized,” Dr. Roberts added.
Pertussis (whooping cough) is a perfect example. There is enough disease in Cincinnati and Columbus to be at outbreak levels and here in the Mahoning Valley there has been a slow steady increase in the number of cases per year from one or two a few years ago to eight in 2009. There were 1,100 cases in Ohio in 2009 and only 594 in 2006.
“My guess is that unless we get more adults vaccinated whose immunity has waned, we will start to see more pertussis here in Youngstown and the surrounding area,” Dr. Weiss said.