Oregon’s Vaccine Exemption Rate Drops 17 Percent

Saturday, May 02, 2015

Caren Calderon, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Oregon Public Health Division reports that fewer Oregon parents or guardians sought nonmedical exemptions to the state's school immunization requirements over the last year.

The division's Oregon Immunization Program found that 5.8 percent of all kindergarteners - 2,693 students - claimed religious, philosophical or other nonmedical exemption to one or more required vaccines. That's down from 7 percent, or 3,331 students, in 2014, and represents a 17 percent decline.

State law requires that all children in public and private schools, preschools, Head Start and certified child care facilities have up-to-date documentation on their immunizations, or have an exemption.

Parents or guardians choosing a nonmedical exemption are required to submit a document showing either a signature from a health care practitioner verifying discussion of the benefits and risks of immunization, or a certificate of completion of an interactive online educational video about the benefits and risks of immunization.

Public health officials believe the drop in the exemption rate was due to passage of Senate Bill 132A, which was signed into law on June 26, 2013, and went into effect on March 1, 2014. The legislation changes the process for claiming a nonmedical exemption to school and child care immunization requirements.

"What Oregon's new data tells me is that parents and guardians are making truly informed decisions about vaccinations," said Stacy de Assis Matthews, school law coordinator with the Oregon Immunization Program.

Matthews says it's not known how, or whether, changes implemented as a result of SB 132A affected parents' and guardians' decisions to get their children vaccinated. "But I believe that the education provided through health care providers and the online module helped many parents realize that the benefits of immunizations far outweighed any risks," she said.

The latest exemption data were compiled after School Exclusion Day, Feb. 18, 2015. That is the date by which parents or guardians were required to provide up-to-date immunization or exemption documentation to their children's schools. Vaccination exemption rates by individual school will be available in early June.

Additional information on school immunizations can be found at the Immunization Program.

Related Slideshow: Portland Emergency Rooms: How Long You Have to Wait

The slides below show wait times at Portland ERs. The slides use the following terms:

The wait time: How long a patient waits before being seen by a doctor, physician’s assistant, or nurse practitioner.
Wait time before admission: How long emergency room visitors who later became inpatients had to wait before being admitted.
Wait time before transfer: How long admitted patients had to wait before being transferred to their hospital bed.
Time in ER: The total time a visitor who was not admitted as an inpatient spent in the emergency room.
Percent who leave before being seen: Visitors who decided to leave before being seen by a doctor.

For all measures, lower numbers are better. The below hospitals are ranked from shortest to longest wait times. Data was taken from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service. It corresponds to information collected from fall 2012 to fall 2013.