Costs of immunization registries: experiences from the All Kids Count II Projects

BACKGROUND: Immunization registries are tools to improve and sustain immunization coverage rates for our nation's preschool children. Developing a means of supporting registries over the long term requires information on costs to operate registries. METHODS: To determine the annual cost per child to operate immunization registries for the 16 All Kids Count (AKC) II projects- some of the most developed registry projects in the United States- we projected a national figure for operating registries and compared the figure with a variety of potential cost offsets. RESULTS: When the registries are fully operational- the average cost per child for the 16 AKC II projects will be $3.91 (range- $1.60 to $6.23/ interquartile range- $2.91 to $4.81) per year. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the AKC study- maintaining a nationwide network of registries for children aged 0 to 5 will require an estimated $78.2 million. Cost offsets include not having to manually retrieve records for school entry- child care- change in provider- and H