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Letter to the Editor| Volume 15, ISSUE 11, P847, November 2014

Healthcare Worker Influenza Vaccination in Nursing Homes

Published:September 25, 2014DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2014.07.017
      The report on “Healthcare Worker Influenza Vaccination in Nursing Homes”

      Campbell LJ, Li Q, Li Y. Healthcare worker influenza vaccination in Oregon nursing homes: Correlates of facility characteristics [published online ahead of print. J Am Med Dir Assoc July 20, 2014]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2014.06.005.

      is very interesting. Campbell et al

      Campbell LJ, Li Q, Li Y. Healthcare worker influenza vaccination in Oregon nursing homes: Correlates of facility characteristics [published online ahead of print. J Am Med Dir Assoc July 20, 2014]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2014.06.005.

      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.
      • Wiwanitkit V.
      Swine flu infection among medical students: an issue of concern.
      • Wiwanitkit V.
      Hospital maid: A worker at risk of contracting swine flu.
      To increase influenza vaccination is the aim of present infection control. Winston et al
      • Winston L.
      • Wagner S.
      • Chan S.
      Healthcare workers under a mandated H1N1 vaccination policy with employment termination penalty: A survey to assess employee perception.
      proposed an effective method to increase influenza vaccination rate among health care workers: the “mandated H1N vaccination.” Winston et al
      • Winston L.
      • Wagner S.
      • Chan S.
      Healthcare workers under a mandated H1N1 vaccination policy with employment termination penalty: A survey to assess employee perception.
      noted that “the mandate helped to increase [health care worker] influenza vaccination rates dramatically.” Naleway et al
      • 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.
      also noted that health care workers “said they would have been vaccinated if required by their employer.” To increase the vaccination rate in nursing homes, the mandatory vaccination policy should be applied for all centers and targeting “low-performing facilities,” as suggested by Campbell et al,

      Campbell LJ, Li Q, Li Y. Healthcare worker influenza vaccination in Oregon nursing homes: Correlates of facility characteristics [published online ahead of print. J Am Med Dir Assoc July 20, 2014]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2014.06.005.

      might not give much advantage.
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      References

      1. Campbell LJ, Li Q, Li Y. Healthcare worker influenza vaccination in Oregon nursing homes: Correlates of facility characteristics [published online ahead of print. J Am Med Dir Assoc July 20, 2014]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2014.06.005.

        • Wiwanitkit V.
        Swine flu infection among medical students: an issue of concern.
        Am J Infect Control. 2009; 37: 868
        • Wiwanitkit V.
        Hospital maid: A worker at risk of contracting swine flu.
        Int J Occup Environ Med. 2010; 1: 144-145
        • 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
        • 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

      Linked Article

      • Health Care Worker Influenza Vaccination in Oregon Nursing Homes: Correlates of Facility Characteristics
        Journal of the American Medical Directors AssociationVol. 15Issue 11
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          We appreciate the comments by Dr Sim and Dr Wiwanitkit on our article,1 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,2–5 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.
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