More Than Five Million Adult Vaccinations Administered as Result of AMGA Foundation and Optum Collaboration on Adult Immunizations

Contact:

Gwen Holliday
Optum
202-549-3429
gwen.m.holliday@optum.com

Alexandria, VA – A joint effort between AMGA Foundation and Optum, with support from Pfizer, to improve adult immunization rates has resulted in more than five million influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations administered or documented over a three-year period.

The Adult Immunization (AI) Best Practices Learning Collaborative launched in 2015 with a successful pilot program, during which seven AMGA member medical groups and health systems administered or documented nearly one million vaccinations over a 14-month period. Following the pilot, AMGA and Optum, with support from Pfizer, launched an expanded program in 2017, which included 39 AMGA member medical groups and health systems. During the expanded program (2017–2018), an estimated 4.5 million additional vaccines were administered or documented, for a total of approximately 5.5 million.

“Each year, thousands of older adults receive care for complications caused by influenza and invasive pneumococcal diseases, costing medical groups and health systems millions,” said John Kennedy, M.D., AMGA Foundation president and AMGA chief medical officer. “Fortunately, reactive treatment for these complications can often be prevented if patients are vaccinated. By increasing their vaccination rates, the medical groups participating in this Collaborative have measurably improved patient outcomes and reduced costs.”

To address gaps in recommended vaccination practices, collaborative participants designed and implemented a set of interventions. These interventions included:

• Staff education
• Transparent data reporting
• Bi-directional state registry electronic health record (EHR) feeds
• Reminders and/or gaps in care EHR prompts
• Patient vaccination reminders and EHR alerts
• Automated patient outreach
• Physician and provider champions
• Internal campaigns to promote vaccinations

All pilot program and expanded program participants have published case studies detailing the interventions they implemented.

Optum used its population health analytics to produce comprehensive integrated data sets for the pilot and expanded program. Using Optum data, pilot participants were able to conduct data-driven patient outreach to support improving immunization rates. Some organizations were also able to use the Optum data sets to self-report standardized specifications provided by AMGA and Optum analytics for each measure.

“We are pleased with the positive impact this program has had for millions of patients and toward achieving the Triple Aim,” said Brian Solow, M.D., FAAFP, Optum Analytics chief medical officer. “It has been an honor to work closely with AMGA on this important population health initiative, and we look forward to future collaborations that help AMGA members to leverage data and analytics to improve quality and reduce cost of care.”

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About Optum
Optum is a leading information and technology-enabled health services business dedicated to helping make the health system work better for everyone. With more than 165,000 people worldwide, Optum delivers intelligent, integrated solutions that help to modernize the health system and improve overall population health. Optum is part of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH). For more information, visit www.Optum.com.

About AMGA Foundation
AMGA Foundation is AMGA’s philanthropic arm that enables medical groups and other organized systems of care to consistently improve health and health care. AMGA Foundation serves as a catalyst, connector and collaborator for translating the evidence of what works best in improving health and health care in everyday practice.

About AMGA
AMGA is a trade association leading the transformation of health care in America. Representing multispecialty medical groups and integrated systems of care, we advocate, educate, innovate, and empower our members to deliver the next level of high performance health. AMGA is the national voice promoting awareness of our members’ recognized excellence in the delivery of coordinated, high quality, high-value care. More than 175,000 physicians practice in our member organizations, delivering care to one in three Americans.