HPV Vaccine Completion Rates in Pediatric Patients Need Improvement

At IDWeek 2016, Mark Murphy, DO, Advocate Children's Hospital discussed his team's quality improvement project to improve the HPV vaccine completion rates in pediatric patients, which is an "ongoing national issue". The project's survey included questions asking what prevented people from returning to complete the three-part series of shots. According to the results, while unsurprising, the two main issues were:

1. The shots were given to teenagers, and parents weren't going to pull their kids from school to get the vaccinations during physicians' office hours.

2. Parents openly said they forget the vaccine included multiple shots.

To combat this issue, Murphy shared an idea they incepted during his residency: a resident-run evening clinic followed by an automated reminder messaging system that would call families to remind them to bring their children back.