Improving compliance with influenza vaccination for hospital healthcare workers from high-risk areas: A 6-year analysis

BACKGROUND: Influenza causes significant morbidity and mortality among patients, mostly those with immunosuppression, at extremes of age, and with significant comorbidities. Healthcare workers (HCWs) play a significant role in preventing morbidity and mortality of their hospitalized patients by being properly immunized against infectious diseases. However, compliance with influenza control programs has been limited overall in the United States, with only 36% of the workers with direct patient care annually immunized. New challenges were placed to increase immunization among HCWs in 2004-2005 due to the influenza vaccine shortage. OBJECTIVES: 1) Increase accessibility to influenza vaccination program for HCWs in high-risk areas at an academic hospital through several activities. 2) Demonstrate through results of aggregated data from 6 years that there was a significant improvement in compliance with the influenza vaccination in those high-risk patient areas. PROJECT: In the past 6 years, we increased the access to influenza vaccination throughout the hospital by 1) open visits to employee health service with nursing staff for vaccination throughout the “flu” season, 2) mobile clinics throughout the hospitalʹs high-risk areas at the various working shifts, 3) intensive educational campaigns, and 4) 12-hour blitzes open to HCWs through a prioritized system. Data on influenza vaccine administered to high-risk HCWs was collected and analyzed by chi square comparing 1999-2000 (baseline) to 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 seasons. LESSONS LEARNED: There was a significant overall improvement in compliance with the influenza vaccination program in high-risk areas (p = 0.001) in the year 2003-2004, when compared with baseline year (1999-2000). Two out of five identified high-risk areas had no significant improvement over the past 6 years. Compliance with influenza can be improved with a multifaceted approach emphasizing accessibility. Influenza vaccine shortage may have played a significant role in increasing compliance with the “flu” vaccination among high-risk HCWs. High-risk areas with poor response to the vaccination program will require specific training and different strategic planning.