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Mandatory Flu Shots Mean You're Serious About Patient Safety

 |  By Philip Betbeze  
   September 21, 2012

Here's an easy opportunity to lead. Develop an iron-clad flu vaccination policy, and require your employees to get vaccinated unless they have a legitimate religious or medical exemption.

Sound draconian?

To many, it once did. But in today's healthcare environment, we're supposed to be about putting patients first. If a particular treatment proves more efficacious than another, or more efficacious than no treatment at all, it should be implemented outside any countervailing evidence.

The only reason requiring flu vaccination is perceived as different is that it involves medical treatment for the people providing the healthcare, whereas, in most cases, it deals with the people who are receiving it.

That's not a good enough reason not to do this.

Yet still a large percentage of hospitals and health systems rely on voluntary vaccination programs for their employees. On average, 98.8% of people working at healthcare facilities that require vaccination are in fact vaccinated. But less than 70% are vaccinated at facilities that don't require it, even among those that offer free vaccinations and personal reminders to employees.

As someone in the latter stages of recovering from a flulike illness, and as a relatively healthy person, I'm shocked that any organization that purports to be in the business of helping patients would not mandate flu vaccines for their employees who come in contact with them.

It's becoming more common to do so, but it's far from universal.

Again, I can't think of a reason why it isn't mandatory, and for the record, neither can Marjorie Bessel, MD, who is chief medical officer at Banner Health's Arizona East region. Banner, as you might imagine, does have a policy on mandatory flu vaccination for employees who come in contact with patients at any time, and that policy says you will be vaccinated.

"Getting out of jury duty is probably a little bit easier than getting out of this," she jokes. "The policy is very clear about what the medical and religious exemptions are and we want to make sure we apply those consistently."

To that end, a committee reviews all the religious and medical exemption requests and makes determinations quickly. Those who request an exemption that don't fit the requirements are allowed to provide any additional information that might exempt them. Otherwise they must comply with the policy by getting the shot, says Bessel.

And that's by Dec. 1, which for Arizona, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is the start of the flu season.

This policy didn't just come from an executive decree, however. The requirement is couched in the very reason most people choose to work in healthcare, says Bessel—to improve health.

"There are a number of other organizations that have done this previously and we have done a lot of reading and research about this by speaking with them to get their lessons learned," Bessel says.

"One of the main points of emphasis of the campaign is that it's about doing the right thing for the patient. At minimum, doing the right thing for the patient includes protecting the patients who come to our facilities for care."

Like anything else, for some employees it's not an easy sell, Bessel says. "Some need a lot more information and communication." To that end, Banner has set up numerous ways to make it easy for employees to comply.

They have created a resource center on the company intranet that includes talking points, exemption forms, and links to other outside organizations that support the policy. Banner's mobile clinic comes to them to give the flu shot, and the vaccination costs nothing.

I'd love to write more, but I still need to go get vaccinated myself.

Besides, it's so simple, and you're in charge. Why not just do it?

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Philip Betbeze is the senior leadership editor at HealthLeaders.

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