49 hospitals meet OHA’s 96 percent influenza vaccine challenge

Posted on: 6/26/20

Forty-nine 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 2019-2020 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 and employees are protected.”

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 units meeting the 96 percent challenge are:

Arbuckle Memorial Hospital, Sulphur Atoka County Medical Center Bailey Medical Center, Owasso Chickasaw Nation Department of Health, Ada Choctaw Nation Health Care Center, Talihina Elkview General Hospital, Hobart Fairview Regional Medical Center Grady Memorial Hospital, Chickasha Hillcrest Hospital Cushing Hillcrest Hospital Henryetta Hillcrest Hospital Pryor Hillcrest Medical Center, Tulsa INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center, Oklahoma City   INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center Portland Avenue, Oklahoma City INTEGRIS Canadian Valley Hospital, Yukon INTEGRIS Bass Baptist Health Center, Enid INTEGRIS Grove Hospital INTEGRIS Jim Thorpe Rehabilitation Center, Oklahoma City INTEGRIS Lakeside Women’s Hospital, Oklahoma City INTEGRIS Northwest Specialty Hospital, Enid INTEGRIS Southwest Medical Center, Oklahoma City Jackson County Memorial Hospital, Altus Lawton Indian Hospital Lindsay Municipal Hospital McAlester Regional Health Center

McCurtain Memorial Hospital, Idabel Mercy Hospital Ada Mercy Hospital Ardmore - Acute Care Mercy Hospital Ardmore - Inpatient Psychiatric Unit Mercy Hospital Ardmore - Inpatient Rehab Mercy Hospital Healdton Mercy Hospital Kingfisher Mercy Hospital Logan County, Guthrie Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City Mercy Hospital Watonga Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital Oklahoma City Norman Regional HealthPlex Oklahoma Center for Orthopaedic and Multi-Specialty Surgery, Oklahoma City Okeene Municipal Hospital Oklahoma Heart Hospital, Oklahoma City Oklahoma Heart Hospital South, Oklahoma City Pawhuska Hospital Inc. Seiling Regional Medical Center SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital – Shawnee Stillwater Medical Blackwell Stillwater Medical Center Stillwater Medical Perry The Children’s Center Rehabilitation Hospital, Oklahoma City Wagoner Community Hospital