Flushing Hospital has recently garnered the attention of leading healthcare organizations, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Joint Commission, for utilizing a novel approach to address an issue faced in the healthcare industry—low influenza vaccination rates among health care workers (HCW).
In 2008, the facility launched its HCW Vaccination Program, where a push/pull point-of-dispensing vaccination model was used to ensure mass vaccination of its employees. The program allowed the facility to test its emergency preparedness plans for mass infectious disease outbreaks, enabling the hospital to see how effective their model would be during the need for a mass vaccination.
In just two days 72% of employees were reached and 54% of those were vaccinated. The hospital’s Push/Pull POD plan helped achieve this success. The Push POD allowed hospital officials to offer the influenza vaccination at locations where employees were assigned to work. At these locations, vaccination teams distributed information on the vaccination, permission/declination forms, and administered the vaccination. A sticker was placed on identification badges of employees who received the vaccinations.
It is believed that this model can serve as a platform for other facilities to improve their HCW vaccination rates and emergency preparedness planning.
To find out more about Flushing Hospital’s HCW Vaccination Program, please download HCW Vaccination Program, written by Flushing Hospital's expert and experienced physicians and staff.
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