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BWH President Betsy Nabel receives her flu vaccine at the OHS Flu Vaccine Lobby program.
Every year, BWH Occupational Health Services (OHS) offers employees the chance to receive free flu vaccination on-campus and off-site. Yet despite BWH's best efforts, the employee vaccination rate remains one of the lowest among Boston hospitals.
This year, hospital leadership was set to implement a mandatory vaccination policy to reduce transmission and protect patients. Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) filed a lawsuit against BWH in September, asserting that mandating flu vaccinations violates state regulation. While BWH believes that it has interpreted the regulation correctly and that mandatory vaccination policies are permissible, it will await clarification before implementing one. In the meantime, the hospital will move ahead with its annual voluntary employee flu vaccination program and encourage all employees to get vaccinated.
Each year, about 36,000 people die and 226,000 are hospitalized due to the flu. It is the leading cause of vaccine-preventable deaths in the U.S. In addition, there are patients every year that get infected with the flu during their hospital stay.
"This is a patient safety issue," said Michael Calderwood, MD, MPH, of BWH Infection Control and the Division of Infectious Diseases. "Vaccinating health care personnel has been linked to decreases in both hospital-acquired flu and all-cause mortality for patients. For every 100 individuals who are not vaccinated, four will typically develop flu during flu season. If these same 100 individuals had been vaccinated, only one would be expected to develop flu-a 75 percent reduction. Flu can be transmitted by both symptomatic and asymptomatic health care staff."
Despite several years of education, improved access and vaccine promotion, overall BWH employee vaccination rates have not improved above 75 to 80 percent. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has urged hospitals to aim for employee vaccination rates greater than 90 percent because this rate has been shown in studies to significantly halt hospital transmission, added Calderwood. BWH's peer institutions that mandate flu vaccination for their employees achieve a 90 to 100 percent vaccination rate each year.
Additionally, the flu vaccine is safe, says Calderwood. "While there is a one-in-a-million chance of developing Guillain-Barré syndrome-a disorder in which the body's immune system attacks part of the nervous system-the risk of developing this neurologic condition is actually lower in vaccinated populations compared with unvaccinated populations," said Calderwood. "This is due to the fact that there is a much higher risk of developing Guillain-Barré syndrome following flu infection, which is prevented by vaccination."
Flu Vaccination Options for Employees
If you miss the OHS annual Flu Vaccine Lobby program, which ends Oct. 4, there are a number of other options available to employees this month.
Staff can visit the Neville Building Lobby to receive the flu vaccine from Oct. 6 through 10, from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Off-site flu vaccine clinics will also be offered across the distributed campus during October. View the full schedule.
All employees are required by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to document in PeopleSoft whether they have received a flu vaccination by Dec. 12. If you receive your vaccine through OHS, this will be automatically documented in PeopleSoft for you. If you have received flu vaccine outside of OHS, you can attest via PeopleSoft > HRMS Production > Self Service > Personal Information > Vaccinations.
Contact OHS at 617-732-6034 with questions, or visit BWHPikeNotes.org to learn more.