IIS BEST PRACTICES

This education initiative is an opportunity to learn from the experiences of other IIS around the country -- both what worked and what didn't. What have other IIS done to effectively realize improvement in the areas of data quality, funding, provider relations, data use, integration, technical capacity, and privacy and confidentiality? What practices have been tried but were not successful in reaching their goals? There are lessons to be learned and knowledge to be shared from both.

Click here for information on submitting your best practice, successful strategy or lesson learned..

AIRA's latest BEST PRACTICE comes from Riverside County, California, and was presented at the 2008 National Immunization Conference in Atlanta, GA. Letty Cherry Kreger gave a very exciting presentation on using mainstream marketing techniques to engage those hard-to-recruit providers. In order for IIS to reach the Healthy People goal of 95% of children under six years of age participating in their local IIS, getting all the providers on board is key. Read on to learn how Riverside County increased their provider participation.

Adapting Mainstream Marketing Techniques for Difficult to Recruit Providers

Submitted by:

Letty D. Cherry Kreger, MHA , Immunization Registry Program, Riverside County Department of Public Health, Riverside, California

Background

Employing marketing techniques, primarily during the IIS demonstration, have allowed Riverside County VaxTrack staff to achieve a 60% private provider participation rate. Some provider offices, however, are more difficult to recruit. Since the basic marketing techniques (overcoming objections, reviewing features and benefits, etc.) were not successful with this group, a more structured, step-by-step marketing approach was tested.

Population

Difficult-to-recruit private provider offices were contacted by phone with the goal of scheduling a VaxTrack demonstration.

Project Description

Difficult-to-recruit (DTR) providers are defined as those providers who are consistently resistant to any effort to introduce them to the registry. Because the staff at these offices are ready with a “no” answer when they are on the phone with registry staff, VaxTrack began testing a different marketing approach with these providers. This approach has been used in the direct sales, insurance and home-based business industries with a 33% success rate (1 “yes” for every 3 “asks”). There are seven steps in this process. Each step must be completed before moving to the next and must incorporate specific words and/or phrases. Because people are programmed to say no, this marketing approach seeks to disarm the contact by generating “yes” responses. VaxTrack adapted this technique for registry use and began to apply it whenever contacting DTR providers.

Results/Lessons Learned

With the “Seven Step” approach, VaxTrack experienced a 57% percent increase in the number of DTR providers who responded positively to VaxTrack marketing by scheduling an in-office demonstration. Out of those scheduling appointments, three out of four attempts were successful before all seven steps were completed. These results demonstrate that mainstream marketing techniques can enhance provider participation in the local IIS when they are properly applied.

CLICK HERE for the PowerPoint presentation.

CLICK HERE for the NIC 2008 audio file.

CLICK HERE for the NIC 2008 recorded presentation.

Do you have a best practice that you would like to share with AIRA and other IIS? We would love to hear about it and possibly declare it our "Best Practice of the Month." Click here to download a template (.doc) to help you document your best practice, successful strategy or lesson learned.

Click here to email a completed best practice template to AIRA.

Questions? Click here.

What is a Best Practice?

A best practice is a process, technique, or innovative use of resources (technology, equipment, personnel, data) that has resulted in outstanding and measurable improvement in the operation or performance of an immunization information system.

This best practice will have demonstrated success by significantly and measurably improving such factors as cost, data quality, provider participation, coverage rates, integration with other health care systems, ease of use, compliance with standards, or functionality.

A best practice should be able to be documented to allow other IIS to adapt this practice and realize success in their own environment.

What is a Successful Strategy?

A successful strategy is any intervention that does not quite meet the bar for being a best practice but did lead to success in addressing a barrier, problem, or need in a particular IIS.

What is a Lesson Learned?

A lesson learned is an experience or outcome of a particular course of action -- either positive or negative -- that is important enough to be communicated to one's peers.