Get Your Flu Shot!
- 8/25/2009
- Author: Jim Parker
- Category: Perspectives on Patient Safety Blog
- 10586 Views
- 0 Comments
Autumn is approaching. While many in the United States are bracing themselves for chilly winds and leaf raking, some are bracing themselves for what many experts say will be a particularly nasty flu season.
Part of the concern over this year’s influenza season is related to 2008-2009 H1N1 virus. H1N1 wrecked havoc in some locales, leading to closings of schools and businesses. To date, more than 182,000 cases have been reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), resulting in 1,799 deaths. WHO on August 17 issued a call to action outlining its recommendations for addressing an outbreak.
We are currently preparing the October issue of Perspectives on Patient Safety to go to press. The issue includes an article about the special concerns for pregnant women who become infected with H1N1, and a feature based on interviews with a number of health care and public health experts analyzing what we learned from the nation’s response to the H1N1 outbreak earlier this year.
Marie-Paule Kieny, director of the WHO Initiative for Vaccine Research, reported in an August 6 “virtual press briefing” that development of a H1N1 vaccine is underway and on schedule. As of mid-August, clinical trials were underway. WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend vaccinations for influenza for health care workers. Also, Joint Commission standards require hospitals and long term care organizations to offer influenza vaccinations to staff and licensed independent practitioners.
During the last flu season, The Joint Commission and Joint Commission Resources (JCR) offer key information to health care organizations about the H1N1 virus. Recently, The Joint Commission released the downloadable monograph “Providing a Safer Environment for Health Care Personnel and Patients through Influenza Vaccination: Strategies from Research and Practice,” to help organizations ensure their personnel receive critical vaccinations.
Joint Commission Resources launched the 2009-2010 Vaccination Challenge, which offers recognition to organizations that achieve specific vaccination rate benchmarks. To date, more than 1.1 million health care workers were vaccinated in conjunction with the program.
As you gather information about the H1N1 virus, I recommended the blogs posted by two of my JCR colleagues, the editors of The Source and Benchmark newsletters. (View those blogs here and here.)
I would be very interested in hearing how your organizations and communities responded to the outbreak, and how are you preparing for a second round in the fight against H1N1. Please share your experience in a comment.
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