Making effective use of employee vaccination data to improve health care workers seasonal influenza vaccination rates in a large healthcare system in San Diego

Introduction: Influenza is a global health problem annually resulting in excess mortality and morbidity. Vaccination is a well-established preventative measure for influenza, and is especially encouraged in healthcare workers to prevent passing disease onto patients.

Objective: The objective of this study was to use employee vaccination data to assess factors associated with vaccination uptake among workers at a large, healthcare institution in California during the seasons of 2006-2007 through 2011-2012.

Methods: A combined cohort and cross sectional study design was utilized for this study. Basic descriptive analyses were used to describe vaccination rates and reasons for vaccination declination by important subgroups. A logistic regression model was fit to examine factors (i.e., age, gender, job category, and work department) associated with vaccination uptake.

Results: The vaccination rates increased from 48% in 2006-2007 to 74.9% in 2011-2012. During the 2009 influenza pandemic, 72% of employees got the seasonal flu vaccine compared to 68% who got the 2009 H1N1 vaccine. The most common reason for declination across all job categories was “personal reasons” (58%), followed by “I get ill from the flu vaccine” (16%). Using data from the 2011-2012 season, we found that vaccination rates varied by age (OR=1.005) and employee type (nursing assistants compared with nurses, OR =1.408), and location (working in a procedure area compared with working in med surg, OR= .840) Conclusion: The identification of factors related to vaccination uptake is an important step in developing targeted strategies to increase compliance with vaccination recommendations.