Requiring Flu Vaccination Drives Provider Compliance

It won’t be long before providers will be pitching much-needed flu vaccinations to the patients coming through your front door. Their advice might ring truer if they themselves have had a flu shot, of course. Whether due to a false sense of invincibility or stubbornness, some clinicians defy all logic—and pleading by their employers—and just don’t get vaccinated. In the 2015–16 flu season, in fact, only 79% of healthcare workers got flu shots, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, in settings where employers made it a requirement the CDC says the rate jumped up to 95%. At least some of the remaining 5% had legitimate reasons to beg off, such as an allergy or actual religious objections. So, if you want to avoid do as I say, not as I do syndrome, get tough and require your staff to get a flu shot. Back up the rule by posting a list of the organizations that say it should be mandatory; such a list would include the Infectious Diseases Society of American, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, and the Association of Occupational Health Professionals in Healthcare.