The healthcare system in the United States is complex. Millions of patients visit both primary care doctors and specialists each year. Managing vaccines in these different settings has many challenges:
Fixing these problems is important to raise vaccination rates and provide steady preventive care.
Norton Healthcare in Louisville, Kentucky, provides an example of how to improve vaccine delivery across a healthcare system. Norton has five hospitals, about 1,900 beds, and more than 900 medical providers. In 2017, their primary care doctors saw over 757,000 patients and specialists saw over one million.
To improve adult vaccination, Norton Medical Group started a Vaccine Taskforce in 2015. This group had experts on immunizations, clinical leaders, administrators, and providers from primary care and pediatrics. They made a clear Vaccine Philosophy to state the group’s commitment to vaccines. It helped make vaccine delivery consistent and gave clear messages to staff and patients.
In 2017, Norton Medical Group joined a program called the Adult Immunization Best Practices Learning Collaborative, led by the American Medical Group Association. The goal was to vaccinate 90% of people 65 and older and improve vaccination rates for high-risk adults aged 19 to 64. The target groups included more than 40,000 older adults needing pneumococcal vaccines and nearly 165,000 people who should get flu shots.
Some key steps in their program were better staff and patient education, improved vaccine procedures, and linking their data systems with Kentucky and Indiana Immunization Registries. This connection, finished in late 2017, helped share data and close gaps in vaccine records. By the end of the program, flu vaccination rates rose by almost 14% because of these efforts.
To keep the progress going, Norton Medical Group started meeting quarterly with vaccine coordinators. This helped share knowledge and improve continuously. Staff training on checking patient charts before visits also helped identify vaccine needs early, so shots could be given on time.
Continued education is key to keeping vaccination rates high and closing care gaps. Different groups need education:
Training needs to be part of daily work to keep staff involved and effective. For example, Norton Healthcare includes frontline staff in talks about how to improve vaccine processes because these workers often find practical solutions.
Education programs must also update with current public health rules and new vaccine advice. This helps teams plan for vaccine demand and avoid missing chances to vaccinate during visits.
Vaccines are often linked mainly to primary care. But making vaccines available in specialty clinics can help more people get vaccinated. Patients with ongoing or complex illnesses usually see specialists like lung doctors, hormone doctors, heart doctors, and arthritis doctors. These specialists can check vaccine needs and offer shots during visits.
Norton Medical Group worked to make vaccines easier to get outside of primary care. They raised awareness about vaccine rules and trained specialty providers about their role in vaccinating patients. This improved vaccine coverage in many groups.
To make vaccines available in many places, it is important to:
Providing vaccines in many care points helps give better, patient-focused care and lowers missed chances to protect patients at risk.
Technology is playing a bigger role in vaccine delivery. Artificial intelligence (AI) and workflow automation can help healthcare groups work better, be more accurate, and keep patients involved in many ways:
AI tools can look at lots of patient data in electronic records to find people who need vaccines or have missed shots. They consider age, health problems, past vaccines, and visit history to make lists of patients to contact.
This helps focus vaccines on high-risk groups like older adults needing pneumococcal shots or sick patients needing flu shots. Norton Medical Group used a tool called Epic’s Clarity Reporting to standardize data and track vaccines better. This helps automate finding patients who need shots.
Automation can help schedule vaccine appointments and send reminders by phone, text, or email. It can also share information to encourage patients to come in. Automating outreach cuts down work for staff and helps patients keep their vaccine appointments.
For example, Simbo AI uses phone automation to improve front-office work. Adding systems like this makes communication smoother and vaccine delivery easier for both patients and providers.
Tools inside electronic health records can alert doctors when a patient needs a vaccine. These reminders help doctors decide quickly during visits and improve vaccination rates.
It is important to record given vaccines accurately for reporting and following rules. AI can make sure vaccine records are entered quickly in patient files and state immunization systems. Connections like Norton Medical Group’s with state registries let data update in real-time. This keeps records complete and current across systems.
Technology alone cannot improve vaccines. Success comes from combining AI and automation with ongoing education and wider vaccine access in many clinics.
Well-trained staff can use AI lists properly, respond to automated patient contacts, and manage vaccine stock well. Specialty providers who learn how to include vaccines in their care can use alerts to make sure patients get shots during specialist visits.
Automated tools for routine messages and records reduce work for staff. This lets them spend more time caring for patients and educating them. With this balance, healthcare groups can keep immunization rates rising over time.
Medical practice administrators and owners need to support ongoing education and teamwork between different specialties for vaccines. This includes:
IT managers have an important job in setting up and keeping technology that allows smooth data sharing and supports AI tools. They must keep data safe, protect privacy, and follow rules like HIPAA when linking systems and using AI.
By doing all these things, medical offices in the U.S. can better solve vaccine challenges, especially for older adults and patients with complex health problems.
Improving vaccine delivery needs a team effort. This includes educating staff and patients, making vaccines easy to get in many specialties, and using AI and automation to help with workflows. Norton Healthcare shows how careful efforts and data use can lead to real improvement in vaccine rates.
Healthcare leaders and providers in the United States should try similar methods. This will help keep vaccine delivery smooth, easy to get, and responsive to patient needs across all care settings.
Norton Healthcare’s mission is to provide quality health care guided by its faith heritage, serving adult and pediatric patients across Greater Louisville, Southern Indiana, Kentucky, and beyond.
Norton Medical Group participated in AMGA’s Adult Immunization Best Practices Learning Collaborative in 2017, aiming to increase immunization rates for influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations.
The Vaccine Taskforce included immunization experts such as administrators, clinical directors, operational leaders, and providers from primary care and pediatrics.
The main areas of focus included patient education, staff/provider education, information technology, and clinical support related to vaccine processes.
Norton Medical Group utilized Epic’s Clarity Report Team to create reporting built with measure specifications for vaccination rates, enhancing data documentation and standardization.
The targeted patients included approximately 40,247 aged ≥65 needing pneumococcal vaccines and 164,907 aged 18+ eligible for influenza vaccines, with varying demographics in sex and ethnicity.
Prioritized interventions included creating an organizational vaccine philosophy, increasing protocol awareness, implementing bi-directional connectivity with immunization registries, and improving vaccine access in various specialties.
The collaborative showed improvements in all immunization rates, with influenza immunization rates increasing by 13.8% during the intervention period.
Norton Medical Group implemented a Vaccine Philosophy to convey their stance on vaccinations, ensuring consistent messaging about the importance of immunizations.
Next steps included ongoing education for staff on vaccinations, pre-visit charting to identify care gaps, and enhancing access to vaccines across specialties.
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