AAP: Mandatory Flu Shots For Health Workers Needed
Too many doctors and nurses ignore recommendations to receive annual flu shots, leading the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to release a new policy statement calling for "the implementation of a mandatory influenza immunization policy for all health care personnel (HCP)."
The Academy, which released the new policy statement on Wednesday, "has recommended for years that all HCP be immunized annually against influenza," according to an AAP News article by Henry H. Bernstein, D.O., FAAP, and Joseph A. Bocchini Jr., M.D., FAAP. "Annual immunization of HCP is a matter of patient safety and is necessary to significantly reduce health care-associated influenza infections."
"It is well-known that HCP can transmit influenza virus to patients and coworkers before the onset of symptoms and during symptomatic illness," they added. "Such infections are common, contribute to patient morbidity and mortality, and create a financial burden on health care systems."
According to the AAP statement, several other health care organizations–including the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American College of Physicians, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, and the National Foundation for Patient Safety–have issued similar calls, and several hospitals and clinical centers have already adopted mandatory flu shot policies.
Furthermore, according to AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner, "another medical group, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, last week issued a similar policy and said flu shots should be a condition of employment for health workers”¦ [and] other mainstream medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association, encourage doctors and nurses to get vaccinated but have stopped short of saying it should be required."
According to the AAP, only 40-percent of health care professionally currently receive influenza immunizations, a figure that they dub "unacceptably low."
"The Joint Commission estimates that influenza immunization rates of 80% or higher are essential to provide the herd immunity necessary to substantially reduce health care associated influenza infections," Bernstein and Bocchini said, noting that 2009 vaccination rates for both seasonal flu and the H1N1 swine flu "improved by three- to eight-fold when employers required”¦ immunization."
In order to implement mandatory vaccination policies, the AAP says that the vaccine must be offered free of charge to the health care professionals, must be well publicized, and must have the support of health care leadership. They also emphasize providing the vaccine during "convenient times and locations" and "creating a clear institutional policy for management of employees who are exempted from immunization" for medical or religious reasons.
—
On the Net: