Opportunities taken: the need for and effectiveness of secondary care opportunistic immunisation

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Paediatrics
• Immunology

Background:

• Hospital settings present opportunities to address low immunisation rates in children.
• Ethnic disparities exist in childhood immunisation coverage.
• Missed immunisation opportunities are common in secondary care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the efficacy of a structured opportunistic immunisation (OI) program within a hospital environment.
• To identify and address under-immunisation in children accessing secondary care.

Main Methods:

• A pre-post implementation audit was conducted to evaluate missed immunisation opportunities.
• Data collected from the National Immunisation Register and hospital records.

Main Results:

• 29.4% of children in the hospital cohort were under-immunised, significantly higher than the regional average (15%).
• Māori children showed significantly lower rates of age-appropriate immunisation (36.9% under-immunised).
• The implemented OI system successfully immunised 83.0% of eligible under-immunised children, re-engaging them with primary care.

Conclusions:

• Children receiving secondary care have suboptimal immunisation coverage, with notable ethnic disparities.
• A well-resourced, formalised opportunistic immunisation system is effective in improving vaccination uptake.
• The implemented system successfully integrated secondary and primary care for immunisation services.