Making flu vaccine accessible

All health care professionals who provide primary care to children and adolescents should always include routinely recommended vaccines as a part of the care that they deliver in the medical home. For some children and adolescents, the main contact with the health care system is not in a primary care provider’s office; therefore, opportunities for vaccination may be missed. Thus, specialists and health care professionals in settings such as schools and school health clinics, sports physical clinics, family planning clinics, sexually transmitted disease clinics, and substance abuse treatment centers

should assess each patient’s vaccination status and either offer indicated vaccines or refer for vaccination if necessary. Information on vaccines administered outside the primary care setting should be communicated to the primary care provider.