Houston Area Immunization Partnership Establishes Mission, Wins Award
The Houston Area Immunization Partnership aims to eradicate vaccine-preventable disease by developing and coordinating our community’s resources through public and private partnerships. Our vision is a community protected from vaccine preventable diseases.
Originally, this organization was known as the Houston-Harris County Immunization Registry. In partnership with Texas Children’s Hospital and the Houston Department of Health and Human Services, a local registry was constructed and implemented. The local registry has been highly successful in reaching out to the greater Houston area and has enabled greater participation by providers through development of interfaces and a user-friendly system. Currently the local registry contains records for nearly 1.2 million children and services 412 area clinics.
Recognizing the importance of expanding the range of strategies in order to achieve and sustain high immunization rates, our board of directors and staff completed a pro-bono marketing strategy exercise, led by John McKeever, Senior Vice President at Gelb Consulting Group, to broaden our vision, mission and scope of operations.
The results of this planning prompted us to change our name from The Houston-Harris County Immunization Registry, Inc. (HHCIR) to the Houston Area Immunization Partnership, (HAIP). The Immunization Partnership name more accurately reflects our broader mission. As part of its evolution into an organization that supports broader immunization issues, the partnership has four primary focus areas: (1) Education of healthcare providers and families about the importance of immunization across the lifespan; (2) Support of Immunization Information Systems and Immunization Registries in our community; (3) Advocacy for public policies that support high immunization rates and protect our community; (4) Encouraging the use of a medical home for immunizations. We look forward to fostering the collaborative work of our community to protect our community from deadly vaccine preventable diseases.
Our efforts were recognized by winning the 2008 American Marketing Association Crystal Award with Gelb for Corporate Citizenship.
Immunize. Prevent what’s preventable!
