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Immunization RegistriesAugust 15, 2003(sound from the examining room)Doug: In a cool Group Health examining room, two-month-old Rylie Annis wiggles happily on the doctor’s table. Mom’s nearby with Rylie’s two sisters. Dr. Deb Harper, her pediatrician, poked and prodded the infant, pronounced her healthy, and then prepared her for one of the main purposes of the two-month checkup, the vaccination. Rylie’s nurse Ruth lines up her syringes so she can quickly administer the four shots. (sounds of preparing for the shot and the shots themselves…about :40…after Ruth says…”Done!”…fade the sound under the narrative) Doug: Rylie’s mother, Sherry Annis, has gone through this vaccination ritual several times with her girls. She keeps their immunization cards in a file cabinet at home. Those cards are an important part of her daughters’ health histories. They chronicle which shots the girls have received and when. Annis says sometimes she remembers to bring the cards for office visits and… Sherry Annis “Sometimes I forget, so sometimes we have to write ‘em down when we get home or ask ‘em for a copy later from their medical chart and then we can update their cards ‘cause every year for school we have to present them, you know. So, every year, we have to get them updated.” Doug: The immunization card system works for parents who are organized. But Dr. Deb Harper says it’s far from ideal, for either parents or doctors’ offices, because cards are easily lost or forgotten. Deb Harper “Because we all leave it on the kitchen table, so we would have to go through our charts. But many people would have gotten some shots given elsewhere, at other clinics or at the health district or even in other towns, so we would spend a lot of time on the phone, faxing over releases of information, and then having information regarding other people’s immunization records faxed back to us. It wasted a lot of our patients’ time. They had to sit around here for an hour while we tried to get that information to give them their shots.” Doug: These days, Dr. Harper doesn’t need Sherry Annis to remember her daughters’ immunization cards. Harper can get to the girls’ vaccination records with a few keystrokes. Group Health subscribes to Washington’s “Child Profile” immunization registry. It’s online, it’s free and it’s available to public health agencies, doctors’ offices, clinics and schools. Sherry Riddick, who manages “Child Profile”, says the registry includes the immunization records for every child born in Washington since July first, 1998. Sherry Riddick “The immunization registry is designed to provide physicians and other health care providers that give immunizations a tool where they can record immunizations that they give, look up immunizations that other providers have given and to really give a master record that consolidates all immunizations that children in Washington have received.” Doug: Dr. Deb Harper says her office uses “Child Profile” to find young patients who are behind on their shots. Deb Harper “When they’re coming in for a cold or an ear infection or the kid has diarrhea. For every patient I’m gonna see today, my nurse has this morning gone through “Child Profile” and pulled up their immunization record.” Doug: State health officials are working hard this year to recruit doctors’ offices to use “Child Profile”. Sherry Riddick says about 25-percent of providers who offer immunizations around the state are connected. The goal is to get to 95-percent by 2010. Riddick says most who don’t use “Child Profile” support the concept, but have their own reasons for not using it. Sherry Riddick “The practical issues of how do you implement this in their offices. And they are very, very busy. And we recognize that, and have limited resources. And we are working with those offices and their staffs to find efficiencies and ways to save them time to balance out the changes that need to happen to make the registry a part of their workflow.” Doug: One agency that doesn’t use “Child Profile” is the Spokane Regional Health District, which has its own immunization registry. Nurse Jane Lindstrom says the health district relies on information from its patients. Jane Lindstrom “When someone comes to our clinic, whatever they’re given is entered immediately. And when they bring a record with them, we also enter all the previous immunizations that they’ve had in other places.” Doug: Health district officials say even though they don’t use the state’s “Child Profile” system, they contribute to it, providing data from Spokane County children in case others around the state need it. Jane Lindstrom says immunization registries are good tools for keeping track of vaccinations, but she hopes they don’t discourage parents from keeping their own records. Jane Lindstrom “There’s just a lot of reason why the parent also needs to be responsible for the records. More and more jobs are requiring immunizations as kids are beginning to grow up, you know, teenagers when they go to camp, when they go to college, when they go overseas.” Doug: Lindstrom says the health district can provide new immunization cards to parents, but, unless their children’s vaccination data are stored somewhere, they’ll have to start from scratch. For “Growing Up Healthy”, I’m Doug Nadvornick. By Doug Nadvornick 
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