4 Ways HR Can Raise Flu Shot Compliance

Chelsea Rice, for HealthLeaders Media, January 14, 2013

Last week, Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced a public health emergency in the city of Boston in reaction to the 700 reported influenza cases so far this year and 18 related deaths, a figure that is already ten times last year's rate.

Last flu season 1 in 3 healthcare workers didn't get vaccinated, according to the CDC.

As a resident of the city of Boston, I am particularly interested in the steps hospitals have taken to increase employee vaccination rates.

Starting this year, hospital human resource departments are required to collect and submit employee flu vaccination rates in accordance with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regulations. Flu shot stats for each employee will be published on Hospital Compare in July.

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Mandating flu shots at the leadership level, and getting vaccinated if you have clinical duties, communicates to patients that you take your job, and their health, seriously. But even after establishing a mandatory flu shot policy, achieving compliance from a hospital staff still requires some strategizing.

After all, the time and resources spent collecting vaccination data on each and every employee at your facility, combined with the cost of potentially lost reimbursements and covering for of employees out sick while patient volumes are increasing means that the rate of labor healthcare spending is accelerating at the speed of Contagion.

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