Die Influenza-Impfrate bei Mitarbeitern eines Universitätsklinikums: Status Quo und geeignete Verbesserungsstrategien

Background and objektives: In 1988 the German Vaccination Board (STIKO) at the Robert-Koch-Institute (RKI) in Berlin, recommended that German health care workers should be vaccinated annually against influenza. Despite this, vaccination rates have remained low (20%). Between January and March 2009 a study was performed at the University Clinical Centre in Essen to determine reasons for low influenza vaccination rates and to assess improvement strategies. Methods: All employees and staff members of the University Hospital (n=5349) were asked to fill in a questionnaire anonymously. The completed questionnaires were digitalized and the results analysed electronically. Results: 1670 of the 5349 (31%) questionnaires were found to be satisfactory for evaluation. The vaccination rate among this cohort was 29%. Vaccination rates varied widely between different departments (471%). The most common reason for not undergoing vaccination was forgotten (32%). The second most common reason was the fear of side effects (30%). Only 32% of the employees stated that the quality of the information about influenza vaccination provided by their employer was good or very good. Conclusion: The vaccination rate of 29% among this group of health care workers was higher than the average (20%) in German hospitals and highest among medical doctors. Strikingly enough employees of theoretic departments were vaccinated to a higher percentage than those providing nursing care and thus had more frequent contact to patients. A number of comparatively basic and inexpensive measures would be enough to increase vaccination rates significantly.