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The
Colorado Community Health Network – whose members include
the state’s 15 community health centers and their 92 clinics
– was honored March 7 by the state Department of Public Health
and Environment for its immunization achievements.
Colorado's
participation in the Together
for Tots Immunization Initiative has resulted in the state’s
CHCs having a larger percentage of children under the age
of 2 with up-to-date immunizations than any other health system
in the state. The
average rate of 81 percent for Colorado CHCs surpassed the
goal of 79 percent set by the National Committee for Quality
Assurance.
"We
are pleased with the success of this initiative," said
Marilyn Hughes Gaston, M.D., HRSA’s assistant administrator
for primary health care, "in ensuring that no child suffers
from a preventable illness for failure to be immunized."
Supported
by HRSA's Bureau of Primary Health Care and the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, Together
for Tots sites have significantly improved average immunization
coverage rates in each of the 10 states involved in the initiative.
Activities found most successful in increasing immunization
rates are implementation of an immunization tracking system
within health centers and participation in a state immunization
registry.
More than 700 Community Health Center grantees
across the country provide comprehensive primary care services
to more than 10 million poor, vulnerable and medically underserved
people in about 3,000 affiliated health care delivery sites.
About 600,000 CHC patients are infants and children under
the age of two.
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