The Critical Role of Prenatal Tdap Immunization
In anticipation of an upcoming cyclical peak in pertussis cases, the Alliance is providing the following information to encourage best practices among our network providers.
- Prenatal providers play an important role in ensuring that infants are protected before the next epidemic peak arrives. Routine immunization of women with the Tdap vaccine during the third trimester (between 27 and 36 weeks) of every pregnancy—regardless of their Tdap history—is the best way to protect infants.
- The California Department of Public Health strongly recommends that prenatal care providers have a prenatal Tdap program in place. Include the prenatal Tdap in routine operations by adding a flag in the EHR, combining Tdap with the 28-week GTT, or implementing a standardized nursing procedure (see immunize.org/catg.d/p3078b.pdf).
- We received positive feedback from providers regarding our “Prenatal Tdap Dashboard”. If you would like an updated version for your practice, please contact the Alliance Quality Improvement department at [email protected] or (831) 430-2622.
