Primary Care Pediatrics

Nemours: Protecting Children Through Vaccines

Immunizations remain a crucial tool for safeguarding kids against many serious and potentially deadly diseases throughout their childhood—and later. At Nemours, our commitment to preventing childhood illnesses is demonstrated by our long-standing efforts to give routine immunizations to as many children as we can. We want to ensure the health of not just our own young patients, but also the public’s well-being.

Nemours is going above and beyond when it comes to childhood vaccinations in Primary Care. Based on an annual report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 68% of 19- to 35-month-old children nationwide were up to date with their recommended routine immunizations. At Nemours, our immunization rates are much higher than that—almost 85% of our Primary Care patients of the same age range were up to date with their vaccines by the third quarter of 2009. And our numbers of vaccinated kids continue to rise.

Before the start of widespread vaccinations in the United States, many children lost their lives to diseases that immunizations now prevent, such as whooping cough, measles, and polio. At all of our Nemours Primary Care locations, we make routine immunizations a top priority in order to keep serious, often highly contagious illnesses from affecting children at all ages and stages, from infancy through adolescence.

Promoting Healthy Lifestyles at Routine Check-Ups

At Nemours we’ve made preventing obesity one of our top priorities. Through Nemours Health & Prevention Services (NHPS) groundbreaking program "5-2-1-Almost None," we’re giving kids and parents the guidance and support they need to make lifestyle choices that we hope will set the stage for a lifetime of healthy family habits.

Our 5-2-1-Almost None formula is simple:

• 5: Eat at least FIVE servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
• 2: Spend no more than TWO hours per day in front of a screen—TV, video games, and/or recreational computer time (not related to schoolwork).  
• 1: Get at least ONE hour of physical activity every day.
• Almost none: Drink ALMOST NO sugary beverages.

Annual well-child visits (or “check-ups”) offer one of the best opportunities to share our practical obesity prevention tips with area families. In 2007, when our program was still in its early stages, we counseled 36% of our 2- to 18-year-old patients and their parents seen for annual well-child visits at our Primary Care locations in Delaware. That was a start. But as our commitment to the program has grown, we’ve reached more and more children through Nemours check-ups every year.

In 2008, 66% of our Delaware Primary Care patients and their parents received 5-2-1-Almost None counseling at the routine yearly visit. By 2009, it was more than three-quarters (77%)—and that number represents only 9 out of 12 months of that year. That’s quite a feat, considering that the national average for nutritional counseling at well-child visits is 53% (based on the National Healthcare Quality Report 2008, which sets the standard for care).

As part of our ongoing commitment to preventing childhood obesity, our aim as a health care system is also to recognize obesity and capture, at least once a year, all of our patients’ body mass index calculations (BMI—which uses weight and height measurements to estimate body fat). But doctors’ visits are just one of the ways we get the word out about childhood obesity prevention. Through community outreach and educational initiatives in schools and child care centers, we’re working hard to help make Delaware’s kids the healthiest in the nation.