The first website in Spanish of its kind to help consumers take control of their health care by connecting them to new information and resources that will help them access quality, affordable health care coverage. President Obama wrote an op-ed in La Opinion and El Diario La Prensa today that highlights the website and the importance of health reform to the Latino community.

Special Bulletin: Outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough) in California
For Immediate Attention:
There is a critical outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough) in California: it is classified now as an epidemic. Five infants, all Latino, have died. This is due to unrecognized pertussis in older children and adults which then infects babies before they’ve had a chance to get their shots. PLEASE spread the word through every mechanism you have that it is critical to get Tdap in adolescents and adults and to get children immunized properly. This months ImmuNews includes a number of resources on Pertussis (Whopping Cough).

A Child and Teen Card, both in Spanish/English. MCN, along with CHEC (Community Health Education Concepts), has developed patient-friendly, low literacy, bi-lingual immunization cards for you to use with your clients. The cards are 5x7, and can be printed from your clinic computers. MCN designed the card to be as simple as possible, and to include only the most important information. If the information is meaningful and understandable to the clients, they are more likely to understand the importance of keeping their shots up to date.

A Shot of Quality Improvement!

Welcome to Immu-News, the Immunization Initiatives listserv, a monthly resource for the community of participants in this project.

All health care delivery organizations are required to have quality assurance and quality improvement programs, but it is often difficult to make these efforts really meaningful in the everyday practice of serving patients. This month’s Immu-News suggests a number of immunization quality measurements that you can adapt to your local setting. We are finding from our site visits that many of you really struggle with understanding who is getting immunized, who is missed, and what the root causes are for the gap between your goal of full immunization and the present reality at your center. Additionally, immunization data gathering is often very time consuming, often duplicated several times over for various outside agencies, and often not in step with the ways changes are made in other parts of your organization. Here are a few ideas from us, and we welcome responses back from you that will continually improve immunization practices.

Addressing the Big Four: On-Time Immunizations, Knowing Your Baseline, Making Improvement, and Accurate Records

Our four quality topics will cover:

• Immunization reminder systems
• Baseline immunization rate audits
• Measuring success
• Patient self-management in record retrieval

Resources

• PDSA Worksheet for Testing Change
• Immunization Audit Summary
• Manual Immunization Audit

Este recurso del CDC ofrece una visión general de la tos ferina , también conocida como Whooping Cough. Los temas incluyen síntomas , propagación, la tos ferina en los EE.UU. y las medidas de prevención.

This resources provides an overview of Pertussis, also known as the Whooping Cough. Topics include symptoms, how its spread, Pertussis in the US and prevention measures.

The Fresno County Website Community Health page offers information and resources on Pertussis also known as the Whooping Cough. Content includes information for parents, vaccination schedules and respitory hygiene, information for health care providers, and information for schools.

A comprehensive lung cancer tool & information portal. Research Guide on Malignant Mesothelioma Lung Cancer and Asbestos Topics including types of Cancer, treatment options, Hazardous Careers at risk of asbestos exposure, clinical trials and more.

It Takes the Whole Team: Staff Roles in ImmunizationWelcome to Immu-News, the Immunization Initiatives listserv, a monthly resource for the community of participants in this project.Our topic for the month is It Takes the Whole Team:  Staff Roles in Immunization.  As you know, we’ve been calling each of the Project clinics over the last months and wanted to share with you some interesting ideas about who plays what part in immunization at our clinics.Of course, we all think immediately about the providers and nurses, the people most likely to administer the vaccines.  But who orders the vaccines, who checks the supplies, who keeps the logs, who books the appointments, who enters the data, who tracks it, and who encourages the clients to come in to the clinic to get the shot?It could be at some clinics that one or two people do most or all of these jobs, while at other clinics, they may be divided up among three or four or more people.  What works at your clinic and why?  Does the hand that gives the shot know what the other hands are doing?  How is recording and tracking immunization data a team effort? How can the receptionist, the billing clerk, and the outreach worker all be a crucial part of the picture?Read on for information about the following:

1. Experience: A checklist of all the different tasks necessary to arrive at your clinic’s immunization goals, gathered from our recent phone calls to you.
2. Research: the collaborative approach--how successful are systems that incorporate the receptionist or the outreach worker into the immunization goals of the clinic?

Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit provides step-by-step guidance and tools for physicians and other primary care health professionals to use in assessing a practice and making changes to promote better understanding for clients of all literacy levels. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality commissioned the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to produce the toolkit. Contents include tools for practice change, video, documents, Internet resources, testimonials from a practice, tips, and key points. Topics include an overview of health literacy universal precautions, steps to implement the toolkit, and instructions on identifying and addressing areas that need improvement (spoken and written communication, self-management and empowerment, and supportive systems). The appendix contains resources such as forms, PowerPoint presentations, worksheets, and posters that support the implementation of the tools.

A core set of information appropriate for reviewing the operation and performance of health centers.

There has never been a better time to recruit and retain clinicians through the National Health Service Corps(NHSC). Clinicians working in NHSC‐approved sites with HPSA scores as low as zero have greater opportunities and access to funding than ever before in the history of the program.

A complete list of questions and answers on HPV Vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

FDA Alert:  Conusmers, especially pregnant or breastfeeding women, should avoid consuming a product called “Nzu”, taken as a traditional remedy for morning sickness, because of the potential health risks from high levels of lead and arsenic.

The sourcebook contains information and activities on heart disease and stroke and on the major risk factors for these diseases in adults. It also contains information on risk factors that begin in childhood. Additionally, it addresses people’s adherence to treatment and their communication with health care providers. Because the sourcebook contains some technical information, it is recommended for CHWs who already have some experience in their profession.