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A new strategy to promote flu vaccination among health care workers: Molinette Hospital's experience
Author(s) -
Bert Fabrizio,
Thomas Robin,
Lo Moro Giuseppina,
Scarmozzino Antonio,
Silvestre Carlo,
Zotti Carla Maria,
Siliquini Roberta
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of evaluation in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.737
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2753
pISSN - 1356-1294
DOI - 10.1111/jep.13295
Subject(s) - vaccination , medicine , workforce , health care , family medicine , public health , environmental health , nursing , immunology , economics , economic growth
Rationale, aims, and objectives Seasonal flu represents a major public health issue, especially for health care workers (HCWs). WHO highlights the need of higher awareness and flu vaccine coverage among HCWs. In Europe the coverage is less than 30‐40%. Italy reports some of the lowest rates. The paper aims to illustrate the 2017/2018 flu vaccination campaign within Molinette, the third Italian hospital for dimensions, to provide inputs about strategies for increasing HCWs coverage. The campaign objective was to increase the administered doses at least of 30%. Methods The intervention included informational material, direct educational sessions for workers, extension of the access time to Occupational Medicine Service, elimination of the reservation requirement, composition of “moving vaccination units” (MVUs), and organisation of vaccination sessions within departments. Results In 2017/2018, 593 doses were administered. The doses percentage change between 2017/2018 and 2016/2017 vaccination seasons was +46.06%, while it was +84.74% compared with the previous 5‐year period mean. The majority was administered by Occupational Medicine Service, while 6.75% by MVUs. Among the total doses, 72.68% were administered to workers, 13.49% to residents, 6.75% to students, and 7.08% to “other”. So, 7.68% of total workforce was vaccinated. Only 0.3% of vaccinated people presented mild adverse reactions. Conclusions A combined campaign, that includes actions for education, increase of awareness, improved access to facilities and active offers to workers has potentiality but there is still work to do. The vaccination increase was determined mostly by the re‐organization of the occupational medicine, while the MVUs were useful to HCWs of detached offices.