Seasonal influenza vaccination among health-care workers: the impact of different tailored programs in four University hospitals in Rome

Abstract

Seasonal influenza vaccination (SIV) of health-care workers (HCWs) is recommended in most countries to protect them and their patients from infection. Although SIV can reduce the risk of influenza complications among vulnerable patients, vaccination uptake is generally unsatisfactory. The present study aimed to assess the impact of different programs in promoting SIV uptake among HCWs during the season 2017/2018 in four teaching hospitals in Rome. A multicentric cross-sectional study was carried out, in order to describe the four different campaigns and to assess their impact by identifying and developing a set of indicators that provide information about the vaccination services, the percentage of invited HCWs, the vaccinators' workforce and the vaccination coverage rates.The hospitals organized different strategies: Hospital 1, 3 and 4 organized educational courses for HCWs and actively invited every single HCW through e-mail. All the hospitals organized a dedicated unit for influenza vaccination, and Hospital 1 added on-site vaccination sessions that required a large number of staff. Hospital 1 and hospital 4 registered a comparable vaccination coverage rate, 12.97% and 12.76%, respectively, while it was 6.88% in Hospital 2 and 4.23% in Hospital 3. Our indicators demonstrated to be effective and useful for analyzing the different SIV campaigns. The results suggest that the best practice to promote SIV among HCWs should include multiple approaches. Among those, an easy access to the vaccination site seems to play a key role in determining a higher vaccination coverage.

Viruses of Respiratory Tract: an Observational Retrospective Study on Hospitalized Patients in Rome, Italy

“…In our study, 46.1% of the samples tested positive for the presence of influenza A and B viruses, with a greater prevalence of the former over the latter, as also reported in other European countries [18]. As expected, the highest peak of FLU A and B circulation was observed in the cold months (O.R.…”

Strategies to Increase Flu Vaccination Coverage among Healthcare Workers: A 4 Years Study in a Large Italian Teaching Hospital

“…Nevertheless, the overall vaccination coverage rate was lower than those reached in other international settings [22,27,29,51,52], thus remaining unsatisfactory and still far away by the minimum goal of 75% defined by the WHO and by the Italian PNPV (PNPV 2017-2019) [10,11]. However, the vaccination coverage registered in our teaching hospital represents an encouraging starting point and it is analogous, or even higher, than flu vaccination coverage rates registered in other national and regional settings [29,32,33,39,50,[53][54][55]. Our results confirmed that physicians are the professionals most willing to get vaccinated, as reported in the literature [20,33,50,54], even though the overall increase was the lowest during the considered period if compared to nurses and OHCWs.…”

Healthcare Workers Training Courses on Vaccinations: A Flexible Format Easily Adaptable to Different Healthcare Settings

“…It is therefore a starting point for planning effective vaccination campaigns [ 38 ]. In the literature, there are works that investigate knowledge and attitudes towards vaccination, mainly in parents and vaccinees [ 39 ]. There are also examples of training courses or interventions concerning vaccinations aimed at meeting the training needs of health workers and improving adherence to vaccinations by facilitating communication aspects.…”