APIC Calls for Annual Flu Immunization of Healthcare Workers

In response to the low rates of influenza immunization among healthcare personnel, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) today announced its support for requiring flu immunization for healthcare workers who have direct patient contact as well as ancillary staff. APIC further recommended that healthcare facilities obtain informed statements acknowledging the risk to patients from employees who decline the vaccine for reasons other than medical.

The recommendations are published in the APIC position paper, “Influenza Immunization of Healthcare Personnel.” APIC states that healthcare facilities should implement a comprehensive strategy incorporating all of the guidelines for influenza vaccination of healthcare personnel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

“We must do a better job of immunizing healthcare workers every year to ensure patient safety and protect those individuals at high risk of developing complications of influenza,” said Linda R. Greene, RN, MPS, CIC, lead author of APIC’s position paper and director of infection prevention and control at Rochester General Health System in New York. “Despite longstanding recommendations by government agencies and national healthcare organizations, only 42 percent of healthcare workers receive yearly flu vaccines. Voluntary efforts are clearly not effective – it’s time for hospitals and other healthcare facilities to require influenza immunization.”