Background
Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 virus have been available since December 2020. Vaccination rates amongst hospitalized patients at our institution remained low at about 40%, thus we sought to understand the drivers of vaccine hesitancy in our patient population.
Methods
All unvaccinated adult patients admitted to our hospital were asked to participate in a survey to assess COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Updated vaccination status was collected at the end of the study.
Results
97 patients agreed to participate, of which 34% were SARS-CoV-2 positive on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. Of the 64 participants eligible to receive the vaccine, 57.8% were agreeable but only 27% received the vaccine before discharge.
Conclusion
Many patients are willing to receive the vaccine and hospitalization provides a unique opportunity to interact with patients who have been otherwise unaware, unable, or unwilling to pursue vaccination outside of the hospital.
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