Two-thirds of hospital workers accept vaccine
December 1, 2009 2 minutes read
Two-thirds of hospital workers accept vaccine
Push for mandatory vaccines for HCWs continues
In an intense effort to improve influenza vaccination rates, more hospitals and health systems are moving toward mandatory policies for immunizing health care workers. But a closer look at vaccination rates reveals that hospitals are actually already vaccinating almost two-thirds of their employees (63%), while vaccinations lag at nursing homes and ambulatory care centers.
Only 36% of health care personnel at nursing homes and 40% at ambulatory care centers were vaccinated against influenza in the 2007-2008 season, according to a breakdown of data from the National Health Interview Survey.
"Overall, in hospitals, we've definitely seen an increase [in immunizations]," says Gary L. Euler, DrPH, an epidemiologist with the assessment branch of the Immunization Services Division of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Hospitals in total have improved, whereas other places haven't."
Nursing homes and ambulatory care centers had about the same rate of immunization in 2007- 2008 as in the 2003-2004 season, the survey data showed. Influenza vaccination of health care workers has become a high-profile and contentious issue. In October, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) issued a new position statement in favor of mandatory vaccination programs "as these programs are likely to be the most effective means to protect patients against the transmission of seasonal and H1N1 influenza by health care workers."
Health care workers who are not vaccinated due to medical contraindications, a religious exemption, or vaccine shortage should be required to wear masks or be reassigned away from direct patient care, the IDSA said. Voluntary efforts simply weren't effective in ensuring a high level of flu vaccination, the IDSA board concluded.
"The people who were most persuasive to the board were all those health care workers who were not getting vaccinated," says William Schaffner, MD, an infectious disease expert who is chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and secretary of the IDSA board. Yet there has been some push-back to mandatory programs. A judge temporarily halted enforcement of the New York state regulation requiring flu vaccination of health care workers after three Albany emergency department nurses sued. Then, amid delays in production and delivery of H1N1 vaccine, New York Gov. David Paterson announced that it must be reserved for those at greatest risk of serious illness and death from influenza. The state's health commissioner rescinded the rule.
In an intense effort to improve influenza vaccination rates, more hospitals and health systems are moving toward mandatory policies for immunizing health care workers.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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