Kids Come First to help families catch up on immunizations with innovative, seamless solution
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February 23, 2023
On National Kids and Vaccines Day, partners of the Kids Come First Health Team are working together to provide a streamlined, easy-to-use system that will help families – especially those without access to primary care – catch up on routine childhood immunizations and can also send the records to local public health units, automatically.
In Ottawa alone, over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, kids have missed tens of thousands of doses of their routine series of vaccinations for diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, polio, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough). This disruption to immunization access is a result of many pandemic-related factors as well as significant population growth without the number of primary care providers keeping pace.
Four public health units, and six community health centres and clinics are working with CANImmunize to help families address this vaccination gap. CANImmunize has developed an easy-to-use, best-in-class, end-to-end immunization system that allows parents to easily book appointments, send immunization information automatically to their public health unit, and streamlines clinic operations for the public health units, health centres and clinics. The system, called ClinicFlow, was used by three provincial/territorial governments to support their COVID-19 immunization bookings and record keeping.
This is the first time public health units and local community clinics have worked together to use ClinicFlow for routine childhood vaccinations in this way.
The confirmed Kids Come First Health Team partners for this immunization catch-up initiative are:
- CANImmunize
- Ottawa Public Health
- Renfrew County and District Health Unit
- Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit
- Eastern Ontario Public Health Unit (offering immunization catch-up clinics as part of this initiative, but not using ClinicFlow)
- Centre de santé communautaire de l’Estrie
- Centretown Community Health Centre
- ConnectWell Community Health
- East Ottawa Kids Care Clinic
- Rainbow Valley Community Health Centre
- Somerset West Community Health Centre
The partners are holding their kickoff meeting today to put the solution in place. They hope to have the system operating and integrated with local immunization clinics by May.
Partner quotations
“As a community, we have work to do to increase uptake of critical vaccines among children. The adoption of ClinicFlow will increase convenience for families by making it easier to book an appointment close to home. This is one step in helping us address the growing backlog of children who are not fully protected against many diseases, including diseases like measles and polio that have the potential to cause outbreaks in our community. We look forward to continuing to work with the Kids Come First Health Team, and many other partners, to help ensure more children are adequately protected by safe and effective vaccines.”
– Dr. Vera Etches, Medical Officer of Health, Ottawa Public Health
“Thank you to the Kids Come First Health Team for taking the leadership on this critical issue. CANImmunize is grateful to be a partner and have the opportunity to bring our learnings from the pandemic to provide digital solutions that support the health and well-being of our community.”
– Dr. Kumanan Wilson, Chief Scientist, CANImmunize
“Making health care better and easier to access for children, youth and families is exactly why the Kids Come First Health Team was created. This immunization plan and regional partnership is a perfect example of the great things that can happen when organizations and health-care providers work together to solve a problem for families and provide the care they need.”
– Jennifer Proulx, Vice President, Child Development and Community Services, CHEO
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About Kids Come First Health Team
Supported by the Ontario Ministry of Health, the Kids Come First Health Team includes over 60 organizations, family and youth partners, nearly 1,100 physicians, and many other individuals including children, youth, and families.
We connect high-quality care for children and youth in the Champlain region to simplify their health care journey across the health and social system, providing them with easy access to the right care, at the right time, in the right place.