Improving Vaccination Rates Among Cancer Patients

Improving Vaccination Rates Among Cancer Patients

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Description

Patients with cancer are at higher risk for complications from infectious complications, and advancements in immunization assessment would allow an improvement in vaccination practices at our institution and thereby reducing vaccine-preventable infection. Unfortunately, rates of immunization in cancer patients remain low. The aim of this project is to improve vaccination assessment, documentation, administration, and referrals.

As baseline data, we evaluated the assessment of immunizations at the Infectious Diseases clinics during June-December 2022 and found out that 82 % of the new patients evaluated in the clinic did not have their immunization records reviewed during their outpatient visit, and that 97% of the patients during Flu season in 2023 did not have documentation of Influenza vaccine administration. Our project consists of two phases:

Phase I- Aimed to improve the immunization assessment and documentation by 20%, and Phase II- To improve Influenza vaccination administration by 10%.

The project tools included among others a) the use of a “green sticker” as a reminder for the nurses to assess for immunization, b) a smart phrase for nurses and providers to improve documentation, c) improvement of communication with pharmacy and allocation of influenza vaccine in the clinic.

By developing a standard workflow for immunization assessment in the Infectious Diseases Outpatient Clinic, we successfully met and exceeded our aim of decreasing the percentage of patients that did not have vaccination assessed from 82% to 1% and to improve the percentage of patients that did not receive the influenza vaccine from 97% to 85%.

Department

Internal Medicine Center - Main

Improving Vaccination Rates Among Cancer Patients

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