tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Vaccine
. 2023 Jan 2;S0264-410X(22)01598-5.
doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.12.063. Online ahead of print.
Assessment of a COVID-19 vaccination protocol for unhoused patients in the emergency department
James S Ford[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Sam G Rouleau[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Jenny L Wagner[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Christopher B Adams[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Larissa S May[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Aman K Parikh[SUP] 1 [/SUP], James F Holmes[SUP] 3 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
Background: We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of implementing an emergency department (ED)-based Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination protocol in a population of unhoused patients.
Methods: On June 10, 2021, a best practice alert (BPA) was implemented that fired when an ED provider opened the charts of unhoused patients and prompted the provider to order COVID-19 vaccination for eligible patients. We downloaded electronic medical record data of patients who received a COVID-19 vaccine in the ED between June 10, 2021 and August 26, 2021. The outcomes of interest were the number of unhoused, and the total number of patients vaccinated for COVID-19 during the study period. Data were described with simple descriptive statistics.
Results: There were 25,871 patient encounters in 19,992 unique patients (mean 1.3 visits/patient) in the emergency department during the study period. There were 1,474 (6% of total ED population) visits in 1,085 unique patients who were unhoused (mean 1.4 visits/patient). The BPA fired in 1,046 unhoused patient encounters (71% of PEH encounters) and was accepted in 79 (8%). Forty-three unhoused patients were vaccinated as a result of the BPA (4% of BPA fires) and 18 unhoused patients were vaccinated without BPA prompting. An additional 76 domiciled patients were vaccinated in the ED.
Conclusions: Implementing an ED-based COVID-19 vaccination program is feasible, however, only a small number of patients underwent COVID-19 vaccination. Further studies are needed to explore the utility of using the ED as a setting for COVID-19 vaccination.
Keywords: COVID-19; Emergency Department; Public Health; SARS-CoV-2; Vaccination.
. 2023 Jan 2;S0264-410X(22)01598-5.
doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.12.063. Online ahead of print.
Assessment of a COVID-19 vaccination protocol for unhoused patients in the emergency department
James S Ford[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Sam G Rouleau[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Jenny L Wagner[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Christopher B Adams[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Larissa S May[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Aman K Parikh[SUP] 1 [/SUP], James F Holmes[SUP] 3 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 36732166
- DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.12.063
Abstract
Background: We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of implementing an emergency department (ED)-based Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination protocol in a population of unhoused patients.
Methods: On June 10, 2021, a best practice alert (BPA) was implemented that fired when an ED provider opened the charts of unhoused patients and prompted the provider to order COVID-19 vaccination for eligible patients. We downloaded electronic medical record data of patients who received a COVID-19 vaccine in the ED between June 10, 2021 and August 26, 2021. The outcomes of interest were the number of unhoused, and the total number of patients vaccinated for COVID-19 during the study period. Data were described with simple descriptive statistics.
Results: There were 25,871 patient encounters in 19,992 unique patients (mean 1.3 visits/patient) in the emergency department during the study period. There were 1,474 (6% of total ED population) visits in 1,085 unique patients who were unhoused (mean 1.4 visits/patient). The BPA fired in 1,046 unhoused patient encounters (71% of PEH encounters) and was accepted in 79 (8%). Forty-three unhoused patients were vaccinated as a result of the BPA (4% of BPA fires) and 18 unhoused patients were vaccinated without BPA prompting. An additional 76 domiciled patients were vaccinated in the ED.
Conclusions: Implementing an ED-based COVID-19 vaccination program is feasible, however, only a small number of patients underwent COVID-19 vaccination. Further studies are needed to explore the utility of using the ED as a setting for COVID-19 vaccination.
Keywords: COVID-19; Emergency Department; Public Health; SARS-CoV-2; Vaccination.