Registries Help in Natural Disasters
published by: Aliera P.What will happen to all of the immunization records in your office should disaster strike?
If they are paper records, they are subject to water and fire loss. Electronic records are only better if your system has an offsite backup storage that remains secure during the disaster. Remote backups ensure that the records will be there for your office once it is back up and running, but they do not guarantee access for your patients who may be forced to evacuate to other parts of the state or even the US.
The only way to protect your immunization records and keep them available for all your patients regardless of where they go is to store those records in Florida SHOTS, a free, statewide, Web-based immunization registry. This was borne out in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when soon after the storm, Florida’s registry could access the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama state registries.
With this access, the help desk offered assistance for looking up immunization records for evacuees. Florida SHOTS’ staff received and responded to hundreds of inquiries from health departments, private providers, and schools and found many immunization records for children displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Millions Saved in Vaccine and Admin Fees
“The Success of an Immunization Information System in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina” by Julie A. Boom, MD, Anna C. Dragsbaek, JD, and Cynthia S. Nelson, MPH, published in Pediatrics, Volume 119, Number 6, June 2007, looked at the benefits of immunization information systems (IIS) in the Houston area following Hurricane Katrina.
According to the article’s abstract, “within days after Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, the Houston-Harris County Immunization Registry was connected to the Louisiana Immunization Network for Kids Statewide. This linkage provided immediate access to the immunization records of children who were forced to evacuate the New Orleans, Louisiana area. One year later, 18,900 immunization records have been found, representing an estimated cost savings of more than $1.6 million for vaccine alone and $3.04 million for vaccine plus administration fees. This experience demonstrated the vital and previously unrecognized functionality of immunization information systems in a public health emergency.”
“In the immediate days after this devastating event, 200,000 evacuees from the greater New Orleans area headed for Houston, Texas. Most evacuees arrived with few personal belongings. Needless to say, most children’s immunizations records were left at home.”
“To assist public health officials in searching for children’s immunization records, the Web-based immunization registry was made available to providers in the makeshift medical clinics in the Astrodome and George R. Brown Convention Center. Health care workers at these shelters were able to readily access records for children by using the HHCIR-LINKS connection.”
Be Prepared
Hurricanes are a fact of life in Florida. Please join us in being prepared should disaster—natural or manmade—strike our state. If you’re not already enrolled in Florida SHOTS, enrollment is free. If you are enrolled, please ensure that you input shots in the registry either manually or through automated data upload so that those records are protected.
For more information about the registry, enrollment, usage, or data upload, please call 877-888-SHOT (7468) or visit www.flshots.com. Together, we can work to protect our children from vaccine-preventable diseases and safeguard their shot records from unforeseen disaster.
