In most countries, seasonal influenza vaccination (SIV) of health-care workers (HCWs) is advised to protect them and their patients against illness. Despite the fact that SIV may lower the risk of influenza complications with susceptible individuals, vaccination uptake is typically inadequate. The current study intended to analyze the efficacy of several initiatives in increasing SIV uptake among HCWs in four teaching hospitals in Rome throughout the 2017/2018 season. The four distinct campaigns were described and the impact was assessed through an identification and development of a series of metrics that inform about the vaccination services, the proportion of invited HCWs, vaccinator workforce and vaccination coverage rates.
Different tactics were implemented by the hospitals: Hospitals 1, 3, and 4 planned educational courses for HCWs and aggressively invited every single HCW by e-mail. All of the hospitals established a specialized influenza vaccination unit, and Hospital 1 added on-site vaccination sessions that needed a considerable number of personnel. Hospitals 1 and 4 had comparable vaccine coverage rates of 12.97 percent and 12.76 percent, respectively, whereas Hospital 2 had a rate of 6.88 percent and Hospital 3 had a rate of 4.23 percent. The indicators have shown to be successful and valuable in the analysis of the various SIV campaigns. The results show that many measures should be included in the best practice for the promotion of SIV among HCWs. Among these, simple access to the immunization location appears to be important in predicting better vaccination coverage.
Reference: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21645515.2019.1632684
