Improving Healthcare Worker Flu Vaccination Rates

If hand hygiene compliance is one of the toughest challenges a hospital faces, surely healthcare worker (HCW) vaccination isn’t too far behind on infection preventionists’ lists of priorities. Influenza immunization rates among HCWs remain low, with only 36 percent to 40 percent of them reporting influenza vaccination each year. These HCWs have no doubt heard the statistic from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that seasonal influenza outbreaks result in as many as 36,000 deaths and more than 200,000 hospitalizations in the United States annually. Thanks to new CDC guidelines this year, more people are recommended for influenza vaccination than ever before — nearly 250 million Americans, so it’s a tall order both in and out of the hospital environment for HCWs and patients.

One immunization expert who has been watching vaccination trends says he is a bit maudlin over the slow progress being made. “Frankly I’m depressed, because we appear over the past two or three seasons to be stuck where we are and seeing no major improvement in vaccination of HCWs,” says William Schaffner, MD, professor and chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn. “Having said that, and looking at the national data, some institutions have gotten the message, have accepted responsibility, and have energized all of their stakeholders about the importance of immunization. Some institutions have shown substantial progress from one year to the next, increasing their influenza immunization rates among HCWs by 20 percent or more.”