Achieving and maintaining high vaccination rates helps keep tribal communities safe from diseases, such as COVID-19, measles, polio and whooping cough.
That’s why Indian Health Service (IHS), tribal, and urban Indian providers are encouraged to apply the national IHS E3 Vaccine Strategy in day-to-day practice. According to that strategy, every patient at every encounter should be offered every recommended vaccine when clinically indicated.
To further the E3 Vaccine Strategy’s success, IHS recently launched the E3 Pilot Community Development Project, which supports the sharing of best practices and lessons learned at 28 pilot sites in nine of the 12 IHS areas. The project is intended to help advance the E3 Vaccine Strategies objectives in clinical, public, and community health settings. There are several participating communities in the Dakotas:
- QNBMHCF Belcourt; Belcourt, ND (members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and surrounding communities)
- Cheyenne River Health Center; Eagle Butte, SD
- Wagner Indian Health Service Health Care Center; Wagner, SD
- Woodrow Wilson Keeble Memorial Health Center Public Health Nursing & Pharmacy Departments; Sisseton, SD
Outreach presents opportunities to talk with people in tribal communities about the range of services that Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Health Insurance Marketplace cover to promote health and prevent disease.
To aid support, you’ll help bolster the work of IHS to increase vaccination rates by:
- Sharing CMS’s checklist of vaccinations
- Reminding families that Medicaid and CHIP cover vaccinations as preventive health services
- Referring people to their local Indian health care provider for more information on routine and catch-up vaccinations.