Vermont

Blood lead testing rates for 1-year-olds and 2-year-olds have steadily decreased from 2014 to 2017 (82% vs. 77% and 72% to 68%, respectively).

To increase blood lead testing rates, the Vermont Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (VHHLPPP) used CDC funds to give health care providers timely data when a child’s lead test result was > 5 ug/dL, as well as supported providers in medical case management. Additionally, VHHLPPP also offered testing for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) clients at the local district health offices when providers failed to test. In 2017, after much discussion about giving providers more timely data, VHHLPPP developed web-based reports for all providers who report childhood blood lead level (BLL) data at the patient level. The reports included:

• Individual Blood Lead Results Report – which includes all lead screening results recorded within the Shared Public Health Information eXchange (SPHINX) system for the child in a printable format.
• Practice Level Reports – users with appropriate permissions associated with a primary care practice can produce reports for their practice.
• Screening Tests Needed Report – highlights children who are due or past due for age-required screenings at ages 1 and 2.
• The Venous Follow-up Tests Needed Report – highlights children in targeted age range (under 6) and any children <18 years of age who have lead results over a specific threshold as requiring follow-up.

After developing these very basic patient-level reports, VHHLPPP decided to create more visually appealing reports that aggregate provider-level data and compare provider testing rates with the state’s overall and regional testing rates in FY2019. The VHHLPPP found that providers are not regularly using web-based reports. When VHHLPPP mailed out the provider report cards, they found that providers were more receptive to the information.