![]() Likewise, pneumococcal disease is a leading cause of vaccine-preventable illness and death. Since 2010, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has recommended that all persons aged ≥6 months be vaccinated against influenza each year. Influenza is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality each year in the United States. One clear focus of the DOMQP over the past few years has been to improve vaccination rates for influenza and pneumococcal disease across several of our divisions. At our institution, the Department of Medicine has established a Quality Program (DOMQP) to work with all clinical divisions to create clinical quality metrics using billing and electronic medical record (EMR) data and to formulate performance improvement plans. Increasing adherence to guideline-based recommendations on vaccinations has remained a challenge for decades. Quality improvement has become an important aspect of the routine work in healthcare, allowing physicians and staff to understand their current practices, then develop new processes to achieve an end goal. Improvement, influenza, pneumococcal, quality, vaccines Influenza vaccination may require other approaches to achieve the rates seen with pneumococcal vaccine. Rheumatology rates rose from 50% in February 2009 to 87% in January 2015.Ĭonclusions. Integrated routine workflow and performance data sharing can effectively engage specialists and staff in vaccine adherence improvement. Pneumococcal vaccine in pulmonary patients' rate was 52% at the start of intervention in February 2009 and 79% as of January 2015. Infectious disease influenza rates moved from 74% in the 2011 flu season to 86% for the 2014 season. Allergy's influenza rate was 59% in 2011 and 64% in the 2014 flu season. Pneumococcal vaccine rates showed steady improvement from year to year while influenza vaccine rates remained relatively constant. Higher rates were achieved with pneumococcal vaccine than influenza. ![]() Results. All 4 specialties developed processes for improving vaccination rates with all showing some increase. Physicians were provided their performance data on a monthly basis and presented trended data on a quarterly basis at staff meetings. We used 3 strategies for quality improvement: physician reminders, patient letters, and a nurse-driven model. Allergy and ID focused on influenza vaccination, and pulmonary and rheumatology focused on pneumococcal vaccination. Methods. Four specialties with high-risk patient populations were selected for intervention: allergy (asthma), infectious disease (ID) (human immunodeficiency virus), pulmonary (chronic lung disease), and rheumatology (immunocompromised). We sought to implement influenza and pneumococcal vaccine initiatives in 4 different ambulatory specialty practices, using 3 unique approaches. Background. Influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations are recommended for elderly and high-risk patients however, rates of adherence are low.
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