The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services announced on January 31, 2022, that Fortify Children’s Health, Virginia’s first pediatric clinically integrated network, was among 20 winners of the Promoting Pediatric Primary Prevention (P4) Challenge, a nationwide competition to increase pediatric vaccination rates and well-child visits.  

Fortify Children’s Health (Fortify), which is comprised of more than 800 pediatric providers from 11 participating healthcare entities, including  Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, the University of Virginia, and independent pediatric providers across the state, has a powerful population health platform that provides meaningful data that can be integrated within the clinician’s electronic medical record to highlight care gaps for the adolescents in our care at the point of service. Jointly engaging social media and utilizing the electronic tools already in place, Fortify worked to facilitate outreach to teens enrolled in Medicaid in our community to increase well-care visits.

“Fortify Children’s Health is dedicated to helping our clinical care teams reach out to our adolescents to engage them with their healthcare team and ensure they receive the preventive well care they need to support their physical and emotional well-being,” said Dr. Suzanne Brixey, Executive Director of Fortify. 

Final P4 winners represent the diversity of the country and include mobile vaccination projects, Head Start partnerships, primary care texting strategies, and targeted support for children supported by resource families. Challenge projects generated more than 52,000 pediatric well-child visits and nearly 23,000 immunizations. 

“Among the many impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a decline in routine pediatric immunizations and well-child visits, which threatens to undermine the significant progress we’ve made in children’s health,” said HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson. “Our HRSA Challenge initiative focused on generating creative approaches and meaningful results in helping to get children vaccinated, see their provider, and stay healthy.” 

Fifty teams received an initial award of $10,000 and six months to develop their proposed concept.  On January 31, HHS announced the 20 teams that received a final $25,000 prize.  Winners include health centers, pediatric clinics, children’s hospitals, and community organizations.  Applications were reviewed by a panel of expert judges and were evaluated based on their approach to increasing well-child visits, increasing vaccinations, and reducing disparities among populations. 

For a list of addition P4 Challenge winners, visit:  https://mchb.hrsa.gov/funding/challenge-competitions/p4challenge/our-20-final-winners. To learn more about the P4 Challenge, visit:  https://mchb.hrsa.gov/funding/challenge-competitions/p4challenge.

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CHKD is the only freestanding children’s hospital in Virginia and serves the medical and surgical needs of children throughout greater Hampton Roads, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and northeastern North Carolina. The not-for-profit CHKD Health System operates primary care pediatric practices, surgical practices, multi-service health centers, urgent care centers, and satellite offices throughout its service region. In 2019, CHKD broke ground on a 60-bed, 14-story hospital and outpatient center on its campus to address the mental health crisis facing our youth. The new tower being built on CHKD’s campus in Norfolk is scheduled to open in 2022. Learn more at  CHKD.org.