Crucial
for improving and sustaining Houston’s childhood immunization rates
is implementation of “reminder/recall” systems. Once
established, these systems remind parents about upcoming
immunizations and recall children who are overdue for vaccines. The
Immunization Champions project places health care students in clinics
and provider offices throughout the Houston area, where they
implement reminder/recall systems for the clinic to continue after
the project ends.
This
program transforms students into Immunization Champions, while
ensuring that clinics have a sustainable method for keeping children
up to date with immunizations.
This project was developed as a collaborative between The Immunization Partnership, Houston Community College’s Coleman College for Health Sciences and The Rotary Clubs of Houston
Apply Now
Are you interested in participating in the Immunization Champion project? Apply now!
Immunization Champion: Juana
As
a youngster, Juana’s mom brought her a health clinic in the
Magnolia neighborhood of Houston for her vaccinations. Fast forward
to today, we find Juana working to get the clinic’s children
immunized.
Juana is TIP’s first Immunization Champion! She is a
Houston Community College Coleman College Medical Assistant student
working 20 hours a week at El Centro de Corazon/Magnolia where she
has several immunization duties including regularly affirming consent
to ImmTrac, the state of Texas’s immunization information system
and in less than 6 months, she has entered over 700 records into
ImmTrac. If these families change health care providers and lose
their shot records, their new doctors can find and update the
children’s records in ImmTrac.
As Juana identifies children missing
immunizations, she contacts their parents to schedule appointments. This may involve several phone calls and numerous letters to
follow-up. When she has determined that the patient has changed
providers or are lost to contact, she notes that in the patient
record. When her immunization duties are done for the day, Juana
assists the other Medical Assistants with various tasks providing her
with valuable on-the-job experience! Juana said “They treat me
just like a staff member and offer to show me all types of
procedures. I really feel their appreciation for the work that is
being accomplished through this project!”
