Less than 50% of U.S. hospitals require health care workers to receive annual flu shots, according to a survey study with responses from nearly 500 facilities.
The study, published online in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology (2015 Nov 27. doi: 10.1017/ice.2015.277), also found that only 1.3% of U.S. Veterans Affairs hospitals mandate flu shots, despite no law preventing them from doing so.
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Dr. M. Todd Greene of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the Veterans Affairs/University of Michigan Patient Safety Enhancement Program, led the study, which asked hospital infection specialists to report on their institutions’ policies regarding annual vaccines, the stated reasons behind these policies, and other efforts to promote vaccination or discourage nonvaccination in 2013. Only 42.7% of respondents from 386 non-VA hospitals said their institutions required universal vaccination of personnel. However, many reported policies promoting uptake and/or mandating declination forms and face masks for personnel who opted out.
Among non-VA hospitals without mandatory vaccination, 22% said their administrations were unwilling to require it, while another 22% said vaccination was “strongly recommended” or otherwise promoted, and 21% said face masks and signed declination forms were mandatory for nonvaccinated personnel. Union concerns were cited by 8% as a reason vaccination was not required. In the VA system, meanwhile, 57% of hospitals without mandatory vaccination cited federal agency status as a reason, and more than a quarter cited union issues.
Dr. Greene and colleagues noted that while the VA does not have a national vaccination requirement, individual hospitals are free to determine their own policies. The Veterans Hospital Administration estimates vaccine uptake among workers at its hospitals to be only 55% in recent flu seasons, while a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that overall about 77% of U.S. health care workers in diverse clinical settings received flu shots in 2014-2015, and that those settings with vaccination requirements saw 96% of personnel covered.
Dr. Greene and colleagues’ study was funded by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the National Center for Patient Safety. None of its authors disclosed conflicts of interest.