Georgia's New Vaccine Registry

For many of us parents tracking down childhood vaccination records can be a true nightmare. Especially if the records have been lost or the physician has retired or moved. The Center for Disease Control gave states the objective to ensure that 95% of all children under the age of 18 have received vaccinations. One of the major obstacles to achieving this goal has been the ability to track the individuals and their records. According to the Georgia Department of Human Resources (DHR) the greatest obstacles are, "Incomplete records due to fragmentation of healthcare delivery. Large and cumbersome files of paper records and difficulties in assessing immunization needs due to complex and dynamic immunization schedule." Because of these problems the State of Georgia signed a new law that mandates for submission of all immunizations given to the State Immunization Registry in hopes that the registry will be a single source for consolidation of all childhood immunization records across the state.

The Georgia Immunization Registry has been designed to track all individuals who receive immunizations throughout the state of Georgia. The records initiate in the hospital at birth and continue on to one's chosen pediatrician and on into adulthood. Once complete, the registry will contain a person's immunization record to include past immunizations. The system is designed to preserve individual privacy according to HIPPA regulations.

According to DHR the purpose of the Georgia Immunization Registry is to:

¨ Allow health care providers across Georgia to update and exchange immunization information about their patient's in a secure and confidential manner.

¨ Provide an accurate picture of immunization rates for health districts, counties, and the state of Georgia

¨ Decrease occurrence of over-immunization due to inability to locate past records.

¨ Interface with immunization information systems within the state and in other states

¨ Assist healthcare providers to issue reminders to patients for pending immunizations

¨ Assist healthcare providers to issue notices to patients with overdue immunizations

¨ Facilitate identification of inadequately immunized population segments.

The immediate benefit that I see concerning the Georgia Immunization Registry for myself is that if my child is brought to the emergency room and I do not have the immunization record with me, if a the possibility of needing a tetanus shot is brought up the registry will have a record of when the last booster was given thus protecting the child from the pain and agony of receiving an additional booster. The other benefit that I see is when it comes time to provide a complete immunization for school entrance. A simple trip to the local health department or current pediatrician where they can access the complete record will be very helpful and quick.

Although the Georgia Immunization Registry has been around for several years, I am personally aware that children who were born prior to its beginnings may not have a complete file in the data base. If this is the case, simply talk to your pediatrician or the local health department and express the need for a complete file for what ever purpose and I have found that it is usually no problem for the update to be made.