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Vaccines for Children (VFC) Program

Accountability Requirements

• Provider Site Enrollment
• Continuing Education
• Public and Private Clinic Site Visits
• Satisfaction Survey
• Benchmarking

Provider Site Enrollment

Every medical site that receives state-supplied vaccine is required to enroll with the state Immunization Program by signing the Outside Provider Agreement for Receipt of State Supplied Vaccine. This form can be obtained from your local health department and is used to automatically enroll the practice in the Vaccines for Children program.

Continuing Education

Health care providers receive continuing education from the state Immunization Program via their local health departments on all aspects of vaccine accountability, updates on program practices and requirements, and other vaccine-related information. The state is developing user-friendly education materials for use by public and private health clinics.

Public and Private Clinic Site Visits

The Centers for Disease Control requires that periodic site visits are completed for all clinic sites who receive state-supplied vaccine. Local health departments are required to visit a minimum number of private provider sites each year. A Site Visit Protocol Checklist may be used by the local health department for such visits. The primary focus of the site visit is to ensure that vaccines are properly stored and administered, and that the practice is accounting for vaccines as required.

Satisfaction Survey

A satisfaction survey must be completed periodically by all public and provider sites who are enrolled in the state vaccine program. The survey evaluates all aspects of the state vaccine distribution program. This simple survey gives the state meaningful information from both providers and local health departments on ways to improve distribution.

Benchmarking

The CDC requires every state to document the percentage of VFC-eligible children who are being served. This is done using the CDC-recommended method called "benchmarking". The benchmarking method requires annual participation by all health care provider sites enrolled in the state vaccine program. For a specific one-month period each year, each site documents the eligibility status of any child (under the age of 19) who receives an immunization at that site during the specified month. Documentation for each child needs to include the child&'s age and whether s/he is insured or not and if the child is Medicaid-enrolled or American Indian/Alaskan Native.

 

Last Update: 06/24/2008 02:47 PM