NM Statewide Immunization Information System (NMSIIS)

"Community and state based immunization registries are a critical tool for increasing and sustaining vaccination coverage; therefore, one Healthy People 2010 objective is to increase to 95% the proportion of children aged <6 years who participate in fully operations, population-based immunization registries. In addition to tracking vaccinations children receive, fully operational immunization registries can improve delivery by a) avoiding duplicative vaccinations, b) limiting the cost of missed appointments through the use of reminder-recall notices, c) reduce vaccine waste, d) reducing staff time required to find immunization records or produce certificates. Immunization registries can provide programs a rapid and reliable mechanism for evaluating their vaccination coverage and patterns of use for specific vaccines. Also, registries can assist in vaccine safety efforts and can be sue for vaccine ordering and inventory control."

MMWR Vol 50/No. RR-17 October 5, 2001 Development of Community and State Based Immunization Registries

Why Is An Immunization Registry Needed?

  • New Mexico's children are not being immunized on time.
  • This leaves them vulnerable to sickness and possible death from diseases that can be prevented by immunization.
  • Lack of access to accurate information leads either to missed opportunities to vaccinate or costly overimmunization.
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strongly promotes registries as a key element in improving immunization coverage.
  • Experience in the US and Great Britain has shown that registries can improve immunization levels by 25%.

Barriers to Age-Appropriate Immunization:

  • Immunization records are often incomplete or unavailable
  • One in 4 children see more than one immunization provider before the age of two so that records are often fragmented.
  • It's harder than you think to keep track
  • The childhood immunization schedule is complex and often changes.
  • Providers almost always overestimate their actual coverage rates often by a considerable amount. A number of studies also indicate that staff often do not accurately identify patients due for immunizations
  • Record keeping requires valuable staff time
  • Manual data retrieval and review costs an average of $14.50 per child -three times the cost of maintaining immunization histories in a registry.

How Can A Registry Benefit MY PRACTICE?

  • Immediately obtain immunization records of any patient, new or old.
  • saving staff time
  • avoiding missed opportunities
  • reducing duplicate immunizations
  • Use of integrated reminder/recall systems will reduce missed opportunities
  • Determine practice immunization coverage
  • Provide HEDIS documentations
  • Facilitate management of vaccine inventory

Registry History

In 1993, CDC began providing planning grants to develop immunization registries in every state. These systems were intended to collect vaccination histories on all children residing in the states. Since 1994, CDC has allocated $181.3 million for the development and implementation of a nationwide network of registries.

As of 2000, an estimated 24% of children 5 years of age or younger participated in a population-based registry (CDC, unpublished data, 2001).