Cost and time efficient strategies to providing immigrant populations with immunizations

The Community Preventive Services Task Force recommends increasing targeted vaccination coverage by expanding access in healthcare settings and reducing client out-of-pocket costs. A children's hospital mobile medical unit program formed a partnership with a refugee resettlement program to increase the number of immigrant children who receive recommended and required immunizations at no cost to their family. This collaboration decreased common barriers among refugee families such as cost, language barriers with medical terminology, time that immigrants spend out of school and away from work, and time delay of receiving immunizations due to pending Medicaid applications. In 2011, this program provided all of the immigrant children with 383 required and recommended immunizations in addition to dental care and other medical services at no cost.

The objective of this presentation is to explain cost and time effective strategies to providing immunizations for refugee children and their families.

The mobile medical unit program developed a winning strategy to meet the needs of the immigrant population without concern for the barriers associated with providing medical services. The program's strategy includes developing clear lines of communication across all languages and with collaborating agencies. This program also efficiently uses staff and medical resources, which reduces cost and administrative barriers. Families are able to receive immunizations and other medical services for multiple children during one point of contact, resulting in a more efficient use of the family's time. This strategy is easily adaptable for other agencies that provide immigrant populations with medical resources at minimal cost.