Washington, DC – Today, the Fenty Administration announced that the District of Columbia Department of Health (DOH) has been awarded $1,229,590 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding from the US Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Disease Control and Prevention to help enhance DOH’s Immunization Information System (DC-IIS). Grant funding is slated to be used to further develop the efficiency of the DC-IIS system, which is responsible for monitoring immunization records of all children and adults who reside and receive health care services in the District. Plans to enhance the DC-IIS system will improve the way in which immunization records are made available to healthcare providers, patients, and schools in our community.

The DC-IIS has been in existence since 1992, and for the past 16 years, DC-IIS has required all health care providers who receive vaccine through the Vaccine for Children Program (VFC) to report their VFC patient’s immunization status to the DC-IIS on a monthly basis. In 2008 it became mandatory for providers to report immunization data on a weekly basis. The DC-IIS serves as the only immunization information system in the District of Columbia and the city’s largest repository of immunization histories.

In an effort to meet several national IIS performance goals, the DC-IIS will focus its future development and funding on the following:

• Working to increase the number of providers with electronic health records who transition from paper to electronic reporting to the DC-IIS
• Enhance DC-IIS capacity to connect with local healthcare providers through the transmission of electronic health records and immunization information systems