Quality Improvement in the Area of Immunizations

The project was led by the Sedgwick County Health Department (SCHD), and the project's population was students enrolled in Wichita Public Schools Unified School District (USD 295). The objective of the project was to reduce the overall number of students out of compliance with school immunization policies by utilization of the state immunization registry and immunizing students through school-located vaccine clinics. Following an improvement theory developed by a focus group of parents and school nurses from the school district, SCHD Immunization Program staff partnered with USD 259 Health Services staff to query student records in the state immunization registry and secure a greater number of signed parental consent forms for student immunization. Parental consent forms are necessary to be able to administer vaccinations to children.

Strategies to increase the number of parental consent forms distributed and returned included:
- Development of a clear and concise information sheet for the school nurse at the site.
- Inclusion of school nurses in planning to create buy-in and to develop an advocate and strong partner.
- Query of each non-compliant student in the state immunization registry.
- Distribution of parental consent forms to each student that needed an immunization.
- Use of ParentLink (an automated, phone-based communication system) to deliver a reminder about the School-Located Vaccine Clinic (SLVC) and need to return the parental consent form days before the SLVC.
- Placement of consent forms on both the SCHD and USD 259 websites.

The goal of the project was to increase the number of students current with school-required immunizations through utilization of the state immunization registry and increasing the number of parental consent forms received for immunization in School-Located Vaccine Clinics.

Of 2,015 children not in compliance with school immunization policies, 1,094 (54%) were brought into compliance through state immunization registry records or immunization in School-Located Vaccine Clinics.

The project was tested on a small scale and lessons learned were applied to a larger test cycle. In the small scale, 7 out of 25 children (28%) were reached and brought into compliance with school immunization policies. The larger project brought 1,094 out of 2,015 children (54%) into compliance, with 225 of those utilizing SLVCs and 869 records being located through the state registry. The project streamlined the methods for distributing parental consent forms.