Assessment of an outreach program that links children who use New York City immunization clinics to primary care.
BACKGROUND
Many children who obtain immunizations at the New York City (NYC) Department of Health (DOH) Immunization Clinics do not have medical coverage and therefore do not have access to primary care. A consequence of this is increased morbidity of diseases which are best managed in an outpatient setting. In 1996, Every Child By Year 2000 (ECY2000), an outreach program, was launched to educate and link families to primary care and ensure that children are referred to their primary care providers for their health care needs.


METHODS
Families using the NYCDOH Immunization Clinics were interviewed and enrolled in either Child Health Plus (CHP)--a New York State sponsored health insurance program or Medicaid (MA). A survey was designed to determine the number of children, socioeconomic factors of the families that were linked to CHP or MA and factors affecting children's accessibility to primary care and immunization.


RESULTS
A total of 4024 children had come into contact with the program in the first half of 1997. A total of 693 children were surveyed and 365 (52.7%) of them were enrolled in CHP or MA. Families who were aware that CHP was a free/low cost health insurance program for children were more likely to have CHP insurance. Children who were enrolled in CHP were more likely to have regular primary care, to receive up-to-date immunization shots and immunization information from their primary providers.


CONCLUSIONS
More public health primary care outreach and education programs should be targeted to recent immigrants and low income families and these programs should be culturally sensitive.
Sun
W Y
WY
New York City Department of Health, Brooklyn 11219, USA.
Sangweni
B
B
Butts
G
G
Nguyen
B
B
Ingster
S
S
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D017589:Immunization Programs / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid; D017057:Medically Uninsured; D009519:New York City; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011635:Public Health Administration; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors