Measles Outbreak:
Another Reason
to
Use SAIRS
By Brenda Lemke
Several months ago, San Antonio saw its first outbreak of measles in more than a decade. A local teenager who never received the MMR vaccine contracted the disease while living in Japan.
She was symptomatic upon her return and infected two un-immunized household contacts; a 3-year-old and a 21-year-old adult. The infected 21-year-old worked at a local restaurant where, on a daily basis, he was in contact with a large number of people.
Fortunately there were no secondary cases of the disease due to the fact that they resided in an area of San Antonio with high immunization rates.
Public health officials used the data in the San Antonio Immuni-zation Registry System (SAIRS) to quickly identify those people associated with the un-immunized young man. In the event of a larger outbreak of vaccine-preventable disease, such as the mumps outbreak in the Midwest last year, SAIRS could dramatically streamline the disease surveillance process.
Since development in the 1980s, hundreds of providers have submitted data to SAIRS (also called a registry) resulting in more than one million client records in the registry.
Many providers are enrolled in SAIRS to fulfill a requirement for the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program. VFC is a federally funded program that provides free or low-cost vaccine to children who receive Medicaid, are underinsured, uninsured or are Native American/Alaska Native.
Enrolled providers are required to submit immunization information to SAIRS for tracking purposes. Participation in SAIRS is not limited to VFC providers; others do so as a ‘best practices’ tool and to abide by Texas state law (HB 1921).
Providers who access SAIRS receive many benefits from registry usage. Using the registry to look-up and print client immunization records decreases the amount of time and paperwork associated with immunization tracking.
The Every Child by Two organization estimates that by age two more than 20 percent of children in the United States have seen more than one medical provider. Children who move from provider to provider often have multiple records. Many parents also have lost or misplaced records. Keeping a child’s immunization record in the registry solves this dilemma, because records from multiple providers are consolidated in SAIRS and always current.
Parents having a physician who participates in SAIRS can alleviate any concerns related to the future of a child’s immunization record. If a practice closes or a physician moves, parents can obtain an immunization record from any SAMHD location with access to SAIRS.
Understandably, providers have some concerns regarding the use of a computer-based immunization registry. The primary concern is that of security. The staff at the SAMHD works hard to ensure the confidentiality and security of records entered into the registry.
Before immunizations are even submitted to SAMHD for entry into SAIRS, a parent or guardian must provide signed consent.
From a financial standpoint, the SAMHD does not charge an enrollment or annual fee for SAIRS access, and since most providers have Internet access and/or a fax machine, equipment costs are generally not an issue.
SAIRS is easy to use and provi-ders do not need to use their own resources to train employees. A SAIRS staff member will provide on-site training to those with access to the registry.
Once a provider obtains a log-in ID and password, records can be accessed either by fax or the Internet. Your patients can experience a sense of security knowing their immunization records are stored safely and easily accessible whenever they are needed. For more information on SAIRS, VFC or any of the SAMHD immunization programs please call (210) 207-8245.
Brenda Lemke is an Immunization Specialist who works at San Antonio Metro Health’s ImmunizationDivision.
back to top
