Bee wise, immunize™ - A back-to-school collaborative

Each year the OCHD prepares for ‘the crunch'; the time before school begins when we become inundated with the demand for immunizations. We collaborated with Amerigroup (a Medicaid HMO) to organize an annual large-scale immunization event to educate the community on the importance of immunizations, alleviate the strain on our infrastructure, and improve access, particularly for those living in high risk zip codes.

Event promotion was targeted to the zip codes of Orange County that have the greatest need. Flyers were distributed throughout these neighborhoods and we advertised the event in newspapers that reached a Hispanic and Black readership and through interviews with the media, newspaper articles, and informational materials on the importance of childhood immunizations.

Results of a survey to determine our success in reaching the minority and low-income population showed that of those completing the survey, the seven zip codes with the highest number of participants were also those that have a high number of minority residents (39% indicated they were Black, 39% Hispanic, 13% White and 8% chose the category Other for their race/ethnicity.) Results also showed that of the different advertising methods, those that were most successful were the event flyer, television, and school and day care promotion.

More than doubling the number attending and receiving immunizations at the 2005 event, 2,500 people attended in 2006, over 500 children received immunizations, and 750 immunization certificates were issued, providing easier access and reducing congestion in our immunization clinics during the ‘crunch time' by 18% compared to 2005.