Quality Improvement Strategies to Increase Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination in Integrated Healthcare Delivery Systems

The University of North Carolina (UNC) will evaluate the impact of a quality improvement (QI) model for increasing HPV vaccination coverage among adolescents in primary care settings. UNC will partner with the American Cancer Society (ACS) to evaluate the effectiveness of their Vaccinate Adolescents against Cancer (VACs) model for HPV vaccine QI within the context of integrated healthcare delivery systems (IDSs). The VACs model includes the development of a QI action plan and a QI team. The QI team is made up of health care providers from participating clinics within the IDSs. The team then helps implement specific QI activities in participating primary care clinics. The model also includes vaccination coverage assessments in participating clinics at multiple time points to assess the impact of QI activities. Specific QI activities that will be offered to participating clinics will be chosen from a menu of options that will include the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's AFIX model and physician-to-physician engagement. AFIX (Assessment, Feedback, Incentives and eXchange) consists of brief quality improvement consultations that immunization specialists from state health departments deliver to vaccine providers in primary care settings. Using immunization registry data, the specialist evaluates the clinic's vaccination coverage and delivers education on best practices to improve coverage. Physician-to-physician (P2P) engagement consists of an in-depth training about how to make strong and effective HPV vaccination recommendations to primary care providers. The investigators will compare changes in HPV vaccination coverage between the quality improvement arm or wait list control arm.