Benefits of Florida SHOTS: Children & Families
published by: Kim V.Children need vaccinations to stay healthy. Vaccinations protect a child now and in the future by preventing diseases that can sometimes kill or permanently injure.
Infants are more likely to suffer complications, or even death, if they contract a vaccine-preventable disease. For example, measles is the number one vaccine-preventable disease that kills infants worldwide.
Florida SHOTS is a tool that can be used to increase immunization levels thereby helping the entire community because increased immunization levels offer better protection for all children. The registry does this by identifying under-immunized children.
Florida SHOTS helps parents by:
- Consolidating all immunization records for any vaccinations that a child has received from multiple health-care providers
- Providing an accurate, official copy of a child’s immunization history for personal, day care, school, or camp entry requirements
- Maintaining a system-certified electronic 680 (once created by a participating health-care provider) which is accessible directly to schools, licensed child-care centers and other medical providers that are Florida SHOTS users
- Helping ensure that a child’s immunizations are up to date
- Providing reminders or recalls when an immunization is due or has been missed
- Helping ensure timely immunization for children whose families move or switch health-care providers
- Preventing unnecessary duplicative immunization
- Allowing emergency room access to a patient’s immunization status
