Advancing Immunization (Concurrent Session)-Advancing Immunization-Specialty Societies Advancing Adult Immunization (SSAAI)

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The Specialty Societies Advancing Adult Immunization (SSAAI) project is a five-year cooperative agreement between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) aimed at promoting adult immunization for high-risk patients in specialty settings. The project involves seven specialty society partners focusing on patients with specific conditions such as COPD, asthma, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, chronic kidney disease, as well as older adults and occupational health settings.<br /><br />The participating health systems, a total of 45, are testing interventions to improve vaccination practices related to assessment, recommendation, administration, referral, and documentation. These interventions primarily focus on Covid-19 and Influenza vaccines initially, with plans to expand to other vaccines in 2024. The interventions fall into categories such as clinical workflow, patient education, vaccine hesitancy, and EHR modifications among others.<br /><br />The project aims to generate on-the-ground learning about how to adopt the CDC’s Standards for Adult Immunization Practices (SAIP) in specialty settings. The participating health systems are implementing quality improvement (QI) cycles and sharing their results, challenges, successes, and resources. The seven partnering societies are monitoring and analyzing the progress of the health systems, identifying emerging best practices to share. CMSS is aggregating the learnings and sharing them across all project participants and the full CMSS membership.<br /><br />Insights from specialty practices' experience reveal that specialists generally understand the value of vaccination for their patient populations and view it as part of their role, although there may be variations in whether their role includes vaccine administration or is limited to education and referral. The barriers identified include time constraints, vaccine hesitancy, lack of standardized processes, reimbursement, and logistics related to administering vaccines.<br /><br />Based on the QI interventions and the experience of participating practices, educational resources have been developed by the partnering societies to align with the SAIP. CMSS is also developing resources to support physicians across all specialties in implementing the SAIP. These resources will address reported barriers to adopting the SAIP and will be made available through CMSS's new Learning Management System.<br /><br />Two featured resources are the Vaccine Coding Toolkit, which provides guidance on coding for vaccine counseling and administration, and Conversational Receptiveness e-Learning Modules, which aim to support clinicians in discussing vaccination with hesitant patients. Additionally, EHR Navigation Tools are being developed to help healthcare organizations effectively assess and document immunization status using electronic health records.<br /><br />The SSAAI project is making significant efforts to improve adult immunization in specialty settings by engaging health systems, developing educational resources, and addressing barriers to implementation.

Asset Caption

Presented by Sarah Imhoff

Keywords

Specialty Societies Advancing Adult Immunization

CDC

Council of Medical Specialty Societies

high-risk patients

specialty settings

vaccination practices

Covid-19 vaccine

Influenza vaccine

Standards for Adult Immunization Practices

quality improvement cycles