214001 Safety at 2009 mass vaccination clinics, compared with 2003–2009 standard vaccination clinics — Tri-County (Denver metropolitan region), Colorado

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Nancy Williams, MD MPH , EIS Program, Assigned to Tri-County Health Department, Colorado, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Greenwood Village, CO
Richard L. Vogt, MD , Tri-County Health Department, Greenwood Village, CO
Tista Ghosh, MD, MPH , EPC Division, Tri County Health Department, Greenwood Village, CO
Background: Mass clinics are useful for vaccinating populations quickly. Comparisons of injury rates between regular and mass vaccination clinics have not been reported previously. We compared 7 years of injury data from regular Tri-County Health Department (TCHD) vaccination clinics, that administered, on average, 56,284 vaccinations/year (54,118 injections/year), with injury data collected at 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) mass vaccination clinics, where 63,137 vaccinations (38,389 injections) were administered over a 6-week period. Methods: Regular vaccination clinic annual injury rates were calculated for January 1, 2003–December 31, 2009 using vaccination administration records and injury data identified from an incident log maintained for insurance purposes. Mass vaccination injury rates were calculated for November 5–December 19, 2009 using vaccination administration records and injury reports. When calculating needlestick injuries, the denominator only included injections. Student t testing was used to compare injury rates. Results: The overall injury rate for mass clinics (23.8/100,000) fell outside the 99.9% confidence interval (CI) of the average annual needlestick injury rate observed at regular clinics (9.5/100,000, CI 0.6–18.5). The needlestick injury rate for mass clinics (7.8/100,000) fell outside the 99.9% confidence interval of the average annual needlestick injury rate observed at regular clinics (1.6/100,000, CI 0–4.3). Conclusions: Injuries, including needlesticks, were more common during mass clinics than during regular clinics. A formal survey is underway to identify possible problems with the vaccination equipment, training, and processes. Survey results might evoke ideas for implementing targeted prevention interventions to reduce injury rates at future mass clinics.

Learning Areas:
Occupational health and safety

Learning Objectives:
Identify risk factors for occupational injury occurring at mass vaccination clinics. Name several actions that might be implemented to reduce mass vaccination clinic injury risk, particularly regarding needle-stick injuries.

Keywords: Workplace Safety, Immunizations

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a medical epidemiologist with board certification in occupational medicine who performs occupational injury and other types of surveillance for a local health department as part of my assignment as an Epidemic Intelligence Officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.