Flu vaccine for physicians, staff is 'ethical responsibility'

It is unconscionable for health care workers who do not have a medical contraindication to not receive flu vaccine according to the director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and presented by the National Foundation for Infectious Disease.

We need to create the expectation that this is a given . . . It’s that important.

A panel of experts at the briefing expressed concern about the low vaccination rate among health care professionals and urged more physicians to get the vaccine this flu season.

It is both the ethical and professional responsibility of every health care workers to get vaccinated. It is a patient safety issue according to the chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, Tenn.

An internist and infectious disease specialist in Lexington, Ky., and a member of the American Medical Association’s board of directors, encouraged clinicians to vaccinate themselves and to ensure that their staff members also get the shot. The vaccine should be given to “anybody who is engaged in providing care within the clinic of the building in which the health care is being provided — medical technicians, nurses, people who are going to be involved in providing some kind of service care to that patient — in addition to the patient.

The vaccine is free for older Medicare patients, who are especially vulnerable to influenza-related complications according to acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, whether it is administered in a doctor’s office or in a nonmedical setting such as a grocery store or pharmacy. At least 20 percent of people with medicare are not getting their flu shot.

The panel also emphasized the need for increased communication between physicians and their patients about the benefits of the flu vaccine. Data from an NFID telephone survey of 2,029 adults taken in August 2008 showed that nearly 4 in 10 adult patients had never discussed the flu vaccine with their health care professional and that half of those patients who had discussed it had initiated the conversation.

These data are especially troubling because a health care professional’s recommendation is a strong predictor of whether a patient gets the shot — almost 70 percent of the NFID survey respondents said they would be very likely or likely to get the vaccine if their health care professional had recommended it.

A total of 261 million people in the United States or 85 percent of all Americans are recommended to be vaccinated including all children aged 6 months through 18 years, all adults aged 50 years and older, all health care professionals, and all pregnant women.