Health Care Worker Influenza Vaccination in Oregon Nursing Homes: Correlates of Facility Characteristics

Abstract

We appreciate the comments by Dr Sim and Dr Wiwanitkit on our article, 1 Campbell L.J. Li Q. Li Y. Health care worker influenza vaccination in Oregon nursing homes: Correlates of facility characteristics. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2014 Jul 20; (pii: S1525-8610(14)00346-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2014.06.005. [Epub ahead of print]) PubMed Google Scholar where they raised some important issues regarding mandatory health care worker influenza vaccination programs. Although evidence suggests that mandatory vaccination policies increase health care worker vaccination rates in acute care settings, 2 Babcock H.M. Gemeinhart N. Jones M. et al. Mandatory influenza vaccination of health care workers: Translating policy to practice. Clin Infect Dis. 2010; 50: 459-464 Crossref PubMed Scopus (250) Google Scholar , 3 Rakita R.M. Hagar B.A. Crome P. Lammert J.K. Mandatory influenza vaccination of healthcare workers: A 5-year study. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2010; 31: 881-888 Crossref PubMed Scopus (203) Google Scholar , 4 Winston L. Wagner S. Chan S. Healthcare workers under a mandated H1N1 vaccination policy with employment termination penalty: A survey to assess employee perception. Vaccine. 2014; 32: 4786-4790 Crossref PubMed Scopus (17) Google Scholar , 5 Naleway A.L. Henkle E.M. Ball S. et al. Barriers and facilitators to influenza vaccination and vaccine coverage in a cohort of health care personnel. Am J Infect Control. 2014; 42: 371-375 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (26) Google Scholar we note that there is a lack of evidence regarding the effectiveness of mandatory policies in long-term care settings and that there are legal and ethical challenges to mandatory vaccination. Healthcare Worker Influenza Vaccination in Nursing HomesJournal of the American Medical Directors AssociationVol. 15Issue 11PreviewThe report on “Healthcare Worker Influenza Vaccination in Nursing Homes”1 is very interesting. Campbell et al1 reported that “Given that [nursing homes] generally have low employee influenza vaccination rates, it may be necessary to target low-performing facilities to achieve substantial improvements.” In fact, the problem of prevention for influenza among paramedical personnel and students is an important issue that is usually forgotten.2,3 To increase influenza vaccination is the aim of present infection control. Full-Text PDF