Phoning patients in primary care to remind them that their vaccinations are due, is definitely worthwhile
Vanessa Jordan1 New Zealand Cochrane Fellow, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Correspondence to: Vanessa Jordan. Email: v.jordan@auckland.ac.nz
Journal of Primary Health Care 10(1) 95-95 https://doi.org/10.1071/HC15931
Published: 29 March 2018
Journal Compilation © Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners 2018.
This is an open access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
COCHRANE REVIEW: Jacobson Vann JC, Jacobson RM, Coyne-Beasley T, Asafu-Adjei JK, Szilagyi PG. Patient reminder and recall interventions to improve immunization rates. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2018, Issue 1. Art. No. CD003941. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD003941.pub3.
THE PROBLEM: The New Zealand Ministry of Health has identified increased immunisation as one of its six major health targets.1 This is because although immunization rates are reasonably high they have not yet met the national goal of 95% of all infants aged eight months having completed their primary course of immunisation.1 With increasing demands on general practitioners it is important to understand the most efficient ways to promote vaccination in primary care.
CLINICAL BOTTOM LINE: This Cochrane review showed that contacting patients to remind them to come in for their immunisations is definitely worthwhile. Reminding or recalling people by telephone, text message, letter, postcard or autodialer were all ways to increase immunisation rates. The telephone proved to be the most efficient method, increasing the rate of people getting immunised by 75%.2
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References
[1] New Zealand Ministry of Health. Health Targets. 2017 [cited 2018 February14]; Available from: https://www.health.govt.nz/new-zealand-health-system/health-targets.[2] Jacobson Vann JC, et al. Patient reminder and recall interventions to improve immunization rates Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2018;
