About 75% of health care personnel received an influenza vaccination during the 2013-2014 flu season, up slightly from the 72% who were vaccinated during the 2012-2013 season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
With a vaccination rate of 92.2%, physicians had the highest coverage of the various health care occupations measured. Nurses were second at 90.5%, followed by nurse practitioners/physician assistants at 89.6%. Clinical personnel such as allied health professionals, technicians, and technologists had a vaccination rate of 87.4%, and nonclinical personnel – including administrative staff or managers, food service workers, housekeeping or maintenance staff, and laundry workers – had a rate of 68.6%, the CDC said (MMWR 2014;63:805-11).
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Coverage among physicians was nearly the same as in the 2012-2013 flu season, when the flu vaccination rate was 92.3%, but coverage among nurses was up from 84.8% last season, and coverage among other clinical personnel increased from 81.9%. Coverage for nonclinical personnel increased by almost 4 percentage points over the 2012-2013 flu season, while nurse practitioners/physician assistants had an increase of slightly more than 1 percentage point, the CDC data showed.
The CDC analysis was based on an Internet survey conducted April 1-16, 2014, with 1,882 eligible responses received.