Pennsylvania Health Care Worker Flu Immunization Campaign A Patient Safety & Employee Health Initiative Training Resources: Introduction/Overview Module Version 1.2 June 2011

Pennsylvania Health Care Worker Flu Immunization Campaign A Patient Safety & Employee Health Initiative  Seasonal influenza vaccination rates among Pennsylvania Health Care Workers (HCWs) remain suboptimal (below 60%), which is far below the Health People 2020 target – 90%.  During the 2010/11 flu season, only 5 hospital systems and 18 nursing homes had vaccinated more than 90% of their staff against influenza.  Unacceptably low rate of seasonal influenza vaccination among HCWs is a cause of concern for patient safety as well as employee health.  The Pennsylvania Department of Health, like the CDC and several other professional medical organizations, recommends that all HCWs be vaccinated against seasonal influenza.

Pennsylvania Health Care Worker Flu Immunization Campaign A Patient Safety & Employee Health Initiative  Influenza vaccination campaign to encourage influenza vaccination among HCWs during the summer and fall of 2010/11  Led by Pennsylvania Department of Health, in collaboration with the Hospital and Health system Association of Pennsylvania (HAP), the Pennsylvania Immunization Coalition (PIC), the Center for Vaccine Ethics and Policy (CVEP) at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority (PSA)

Pennsylvania Health Care Worker Flu Immunization Campaign A Patient Safety & Employee Health Initiative Be First!  PA Department of Health will be awarding a certificate of excellence to any hospital with 90% or more vaccine uptake among its health care workers (HCWs). Certificate of Excellence Status = >90% verifiable flu vaccination of all HCWs, professional staff, volunteers, students, volunteers, and vendors with patient contact* * patient contact includes provision of any services or tasks which involve activity in clinical and care settings of any kind

Pennsylvania Health Care Worker Flu Immunization Campaign A Patient Safety & Employee Health Initiative Certificate of Excellence Program  Health care worker (HCW) is defined broadly as all paid and unpaid persons working in health care settings who have the potential for exposure to patients.  Includes the full range of HCW roles in a variety of settings including acute care hospitals, long term care facilities, skilled nursing facilities, rehabilitation centers, physician’s offices, urgent care centers, outpatient clinics, home health care agencies, and emergency medical services.  Includes workers such as housekeepers, maintenance staff, vendors, volunteers, students or outside contractors, have jobs that may put them into close contact with patients or the patient environment.

Pennsylvania Health Care Worker Flu Immunization Campaign A Patient Safety & Employee Health Initiative Training  PA DoH, collaborating institutions and Penn State Hershey, School of Medicine conducting regional trainings on employee flu vaccination, ethics and policy, patient safety, and case studies. One or two trainings in each region.  Training to include overviews on ethics and policy and key case studies of institutions which have demonstrated “near-universal” flu vaccination performance for their HCWs Support  Campaign website with all materials and additional resources developed from training sessions  PA DoH developing posters and other vaccination campaign media tools to be broadly distributed

Pennsylvania Health Care Worker Flu Immunization Campaign A Patient Safety & Employee Health Initiative Today’s Training: Goals - Provide high-level overview of ethics, policy and patient/employee safety dimensions of the challenge - Use case studies of institutions which have achieved 90%+ HCW seasonal flu vaccination uptake to engage the evidence of best practices/promising practices - Learn from your institution’s experience to date, as well as your view of barriers and challenges - Help you and your institution take the next steps to significant improvement and 90%+ uptake

Pennsylvania Health Care Worker Flu Immunization Campaign A Patient Safety & Employee Health Initiative Today’s Training: Agenda  Ethics Overview - discussion  Policy Overview - discussion  Patient Safety Overview - discussion  Best/Promising Practices Case Studies - discussion  Group discussion on strategies and barriers