More than four million children are born each year in the United States. Each of these children should receive 14 to 15 doses of vaccines by their second birthday, and 16 to 18 doses by school entry. Approximately 95 percent of all U.S. children begin the recommended series of vaccinations, but only about 75 percent complete the series by 2 years of age—a critical period for childhood disease prevention. Approximately 40 percent of children receive their preschool immunizations from two or more facilities.

Ensuring that children complete the recommended series of immunizations at the appropriate time is the main problem facing immunization programs. However, since many children receive vaccines from more than one provider and since many parents do not maintain accurate records of their children’s immunizations, it is difficult to evaluate the immunization status of individuals. Without this information, efforts to identify and aggressively pursue children who are incompletely immunized are severely hampered.

To address this problem the Florida Department of Health offers a free, statewide, centralized immunization registry coined Florida SHOTS™ (State Health Online Tracking System) that helps health care providers, schools and parents keep track of immunization records via a secure electronic system restricted to authorized users. Florida SHOTS™ offers immunization forecasting based on registry information to identify a child’s needed immunizations. The system also produces the 680 form required by law for child-care center and school attendance in Florida.