Hospitals meet OHA’s 96 percent influenza vaccine challenge
Posted on: 9/26/18
Forty-seven Oklahoma hospitals and hospital specialty units have met a challenge from the Oklahoma Hospital Association to achieve a health care worker influenza vaccination rate of 96 percent or higher during the 2017-2018 flu season.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): “Influenza places a substantial burden on the health of people in the United States each year. CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9.2 million and 35.6 million illnesses, between 140,000 and 710,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 and 56,000 deaths annually since 2010.”
“And the risk of complications from influenza is higher among the types of people who are admitted to our hospitals,” said LaWanna Halstead, vice president of quality and clinical initiatives, Oklahoma Hospital Association. “These hospitals have developed policies and processes that ensure their patients are protected. Several of these hospitals actually went above and beyond the challenge and met vaccination rates of 100 percent.”
Hospitalized patients are particularly vulnerable to the dangers of influenza because their immune systems are often compromised by the illness that caused their admission or by the treatments they are undergoing. Vaccination of health care personnel (HCPs) has been shown to prevent illness and death in patients and reduce influenza and absenteeism among HCPs. The CDC has recommended annual vaccination of HCPs since 1984.
Several key national professional organizations have endorsed mandatory policies for influenza vaccination as a condition of employment within health care facilities, including the American Hospital Association. In 2011, the Oklahoma Hospital Association board of trustees developed a position statement urging mandatory influenza policies.
Hospitals and hospital units meeting the 96 percent challenge are:
Arbuckle Memorial Hospital, Sulphur
Bailey Medical Center, Owasso
Blackwell Regional Hospital
Choctaw Nation Health Care Center, Talihina
Comanche County Memorial Hospital - Inpatient Psych Unit, Lawton
Comanche County Memorial Hospital - Inpatient Rehab Facility, Lawton
Cornerstone Hospital Muskogee
Duncan Regional Hospital
Grady Memorial Hospital, Chickasha
Hillcrest Hospital Cushing
Hillcrest Hospital Cushing - Psych Unit
Hillcrest Hospital Pryor
Hillcrest Hospital South, Tulsa
Hillcrest Hospital Henryetta
Hillcrest Medical Center, Tulsa
Hillcrest Medical Center - IRF Unit
Jackson County Memorial Hospital, Altus
McAlester Regional Health Center
McBride Orthopedic Hospital, Oklahoma City
Mercy Health Love County, Marietta
Mercy Hospital Ada
Mercy Hospital Ada - Psych Unit
Mercy Hospital Ada, Rehabilitation
Mercy Hospital Ardmore
Mercy Hospital El Reno
Mercy Hospital Healdton
Mercy Hospital Logan County, Guthrie
Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City
Mercy Hospital Tishomingo
Mercy Hospital Watonga
Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital Oklahoma City
Newman Memorial Hospital, Shattuck
Norman Regional Health System
Northeastern Health System - IPF Unit, Tahlequah
Northeastern Health System Sequoyah, Sallisaw
Oklahoma Center for Orthopaedic & Multi-Specialty Hospital, Oklahoma City
Okeene Municipal Hospital
Purcell Municipal Hospital
SSM Health St Anthony Hospital - Shawnee
SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital - Oklahoma City
St. John Owasso
St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center, Enid
St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center - IRF Unit, Enid
Stillwater Medical Center
Valir Health, Oklahoma City
W.W. Hastings Indian Hospital, Tahlequah
Wagoner Community Hospital