Nevada Web IZ
What is an Immunization Registry? Immunization Registries, also known as Immunization Information Systems (IIS), are confidential, population-based, computerized information systems that collect vaccination data about children within a geographic area. Immunization Registries contain vaccination histories and provide immediate access to a child's current immunization status to authorized users. As a secure site of single record storage, registries provide official immunization records to meet school and day care requirements and supply healthcare providers with centralized data to improve the effectiveness and the efficiency of immunization administration.
Registries are designed to exchange immunization information with healthcare providers. Data exchange between registries and other information systems helps ensure timely immunizations, consolidation of records, and allows immunization providers to work more efficiently. This function is of vital importance in the case of an emergency, such as in the case of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. With thousands of families homeless and displaced by the hurricane to other states, some as far away as Alaska, the data from registry systems in the Gulf States was available to authorized personnel throughout the country. This enabled children to start school and avoid the pain of unnecessary repeat vaccinations. In many cases, people displaced by the hurricane had no formal identification other than their immunization record downloaded from their home state's immunization registry system.
Nevada WebIZ is a web-based immunization registry program used in the State of Nevada. Nevada WebIZ allows both private and public provider access to Nevada's statewide registry with minimal hardware/software requirements for users. Nevada WebIZ currently contains over 1,000,000 records, including approximately 100,000 records with two or more vaccinations for children age 0-6 years. At present, there are over 200 public and private organizations, including physicians, health districts, community health nurses and school districts, that have access to view, create and update immunization records for Nevada's children.
Why do we need them?
- There are 4 million births/year (11,000/day)
- By age two, children will need up to twenty vaccines
- New vaccines are continuously added to the recommended immunization schedule
- 21% of children are over-immunized
- 2.1 million children are under-immunized and are at risk for disease
- Few providers send reminder/recall postcards, a proven strategy to ensure their patients receive timely immunizations
- Parents and providers overestimate immunization rates
- 22% of American children see two immunization providers in their first 2 years of life, making it difficult to track records.
For more information or to sign-up for WebIZ, please visit the State of Nevada WebIZ Program.
For current WebIZ training opportunities in Southern Nevada, click here.
For more information about immunization registries, visit Every Child By Two
