New Childhood Immunization-reminder Program

A new Internet-based program is now available to Humana-network physicians. The program enables physicians and their office staff to initiate contact with parents of children who have had a vaccine deferred and need to be called back for vaccination.

Sponsored by Wyeth Vaccines, the Vaccination Notification Program uses either e-mail or automated telephone reminders to encourage patients’ families to call the physician’s office and schedule an appointment. The program, which is called the e-Callback Program, complies with the privacy requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). It is structured as follows:

• Vaccine providers enter contact information for the patient’s parents into a secure, interactive database.
  
• When the vaccine becomes available, providers access the patient database to select patients whose families should be notified. (Physicians can sort through the database to establish priority status for patients who should be notified sooner than others.)
  
• The program delivers the phone or e-mail message, as appropriate. Physician offices can check the notification status of individual patients. In the event of unsuccessful notification attempts, physicians can update the patient contact information.
  

Although childhood immunization rates are generally high in the United States — nearly 99 percent of American children have received recommended vaccines by the time they start school — studies have found that approximately one-fifth of preschool children lack at least one routine vaccination. For example, a recent study found that most parents think their children have been fully vaccinated, regardless of their actual vaccination status. Research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and some medical organizations have generally demonstrated that immunization-reminder/recall systems are an effective means of ensuring regular immunization or notifying parents when an immunization gap exists.

To participate in the program, physicians should call their local Wyeth Vaccines representative or contact Wyeth Professional Services at 1-800-395-9938.

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