tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Primary source: Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology
Source reference:
Quan K, et al "Voluntary to mandatory: evolution of strategies and attitudes toward influenza vaccination of healthcare personnel" Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2011; DOI: 10.1086/663210.
Implementing mandatory flu shot policies for healthcare workers more than doubled coverage rates, researchers found.
Rates jumped from about 40% to more than 90% after influenza vaccination was made mandatory at the University of California Irvine, Susan Huang, MD, MPH, of the institution, and colleagues reported in the January issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
"Mandatory vaccination policies appear to successfully capture a large portion of healthcare providers who are not opposed to receipt of the vaccine but who have not made vaccination a priority," they wrote.
It's long been a challenge to achieve high flu shot coverage rates for healthcare professionals, even though they're at higher risk for exposure to patients with the disease and they run the risk of transmitting the virus to other patients.
Unlike vaccination mandates for several other diseases, such as measles and hepatitis B, hospital employees in the U.S. are, by and large, not required to get an annual flu shot.
Hospitals and other institutions have made several efforts to ramp up vaccination rates. In 2006, for instance, the University of California Irvine instituted a series of vaccination campaigns, including using mobile vans to bring vaccines to off-site clinical areas and using mobile carts to provide shots at meetings.
...
http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/URItheFlu/30220
Source reference:
Quan K, et al "Voluntary to mandatory: evolution of strategies and attitudes toward influenza vaccination of healthcare personnel" Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2011; DOI: 10.1086/663210.
Implementing mandatory flu shot policies for healthcare workers more than doubled coverage rates, researchers found.
Rates jumped from about 40% to more than 90% after influenza vaccination was made mandatory at the University of California Irvine, Susan Huang, MD, MPH, of the institution, and colleagues reported in the January issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
"Mandatory vaccination policies appear to successfully capture a large portion of healthcare providers who are not opposed to receipt of the vaccine but who have not made vaccination a priority," they wrote.
It's long been a challenge to achieve high flu shot coverage rates for healthcare professionals, even though they're at higher risk for exposure to patients with the disease and they run the risk of transmitting the virus to other patients.
Unlike vaccination mandates for several other diseases, such as measles and hepatitis B, hospital employees in the U.S. are, by and large, not required to get an annual flu shot.
Hospitals and other institutions have made several efforts to ramp up vaccination rates. In 2006, for instance, the University of California Irvine instituted a series of vaccination campaigns, including using mobile vans to bring vaccines to off-site clinical areas and using mobile carts to provide shots at meetings.
...
http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/URItheFlu/30220