Mandatory Influenza Vaccination of Health Care Workers: Translating Policy to Practice

Abstract

A mandatory influenza vaccination campaign successfully increased vaccination rates. Fewer employees sought medical or religious exemptions than had signed declination statements during the previous year. A standardized medical exemption request form would simplify the request and review process for employees, their physicians, and occupational health and will be used next year.

A Successful Strategy for Increasing the Influenza Vaccination Rate of Healthcare Workers without a Mandatory Policy Outside of the United States: A Multifaceted Intervention in a Japanese Tertiary Care Center

“…The rate reached approximately 97% and was similar to previously reported vaccination rates observed in studies with a mandatory vaccination program. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Comparison of previously published vaccination rates under a mandatory policy (as of May 20, 2013) with the vaccination rate in this study is shown Table 3.…”

“…6 This challenge has led to the implementation of mandatory vaccination policies for HCWs in some hospitals, and the vaccination rate among HCWs has substantially improved at several institutions in the United States as a result. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] However, a mandated policy can be difficult for a single institution in the absence of a governmental initiative (ie, legislation or regulation requiring HCWs' vaccination), 16,17 and there are concerns about overriding personal autonomy and responding to HCWs who refuse vaccination without appropriate justification. 18,19 Nonadherence to a mandatory policy has resulted in controversial outcomes, such as termination of employment of HCWs or suspension of admitting privileges in physicians who refused vaccination.…”

“…18,19 Nonadherence to a mandatory policy has resulted in controversial outcomes, such as termination of employment of HCWs or suspension of admitting privileges in physicians who refused vaccination. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Questions remain about how best to improve vaccination rates among HCWs if mandatory vaccination programs are not feasible. Although influenza vaccination for HCWs has been recommended, 5,20,21 the vaccination rate of HCWs under voluntary programs remains suboptimal.…”

Mandatory and recommended vaccination in the EU, Iceland and Norway: results of the VENICE 2010 survey on the ways of implementing national vaccination programmes

“…Opinions on recommended or mandatory vaccinations are divided, because several ethical issues are related to the subject [11,12]. Furthermore, at first sight there seems to be no striking difference in vaccination coverage between countries that only recommend certain vaccinations and countries that oblige them [1,12], although from studies it is known that making influenza vaccination mandatory for healthcare workers can increase the vaccination coverage rates in this particular group [13]. On the other hand, in 2008 the Veneto region in Italy, with a population of five million, abolished all mandatory vaccination, and the coverage trend was carefully monitored.…”

Sustaining High Influenza Vaccination Compliance with a Mandatory Masking Program

“…This underutilization led to the development of vaccination programs that involve negative consequences for lack of vaccination, usually by either termination of employment or a mandatory masking requirement. 1 ' 2 In July 2011, we reported a successful vaccination campaign that achieved greater than 90% compliance across clinical and nonclinical entities in our diverse health system. 3 The crux of our program was to crystallize a transparent, easily enforceable, and peer-pressured mandatory masking policy for those who chose to remain unvaccinated.…”