Close up image of a caretaker helping older woman walk

This week, an infection control group issued a new, more urgent message about employee vaccinations: Facilities should require flu vaccinations for workers with direct contact with patients. And employees who remain resistant to it should be held accountable for their actions.

“Current rates of healthcare worker immunizations are appallingly low and must not be tolerated,” said Christine J. Nutty, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), in a public statement. “It’s time for hospitals to require flu shots—and hold employees accountable for declining the vaccine.”

That accountability would come in the form of informed statements from workers acknowledging the risk to patients for declining the vaccine for reasons other than medical excuses, APIC recommends.

This call for flu shots to healthcare facilities, which includes nursing homes, is bolder than usual. We have seen and heard organizations before say how healthcare workers should get vaccinated. It’s almost become inessential background noise. Perhaps that is why APIC feels the need to kick up the alert level a notch—especially this year.

Clearly, alarm is growing as H1N1 cases continue to rise. Since it first emerged in April, the epidemic has sickened more than 1 million Americans and killed about 500. Swine flu spreads four times faster than other viruses and 40% of the fatalities have been young adults in good health, according to the World Health Organization. Meanwhile, a White House report from an expert panel suggests that from 30% to half of the U.S. population could catch swine flu during the course of this pandemic and that from 30,000 to 90,000 could die.

But to add to concerns, there’s also the seasonal flu, which inflicts more harm than people realize—especially on older adults. Organizations like APIC fear that the swine flu, along with the seasonal flu, could make for a “perfect storm.” Not only could it hit large numbers of people but it also could sideline those workers in nursing homes and other healthcare facilities who will be most in need. A chilling scenario to be sure. APIC recommends that all healthcare employees receive the seasonal flu vaccine and the H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available.

“We want to be certain that healthcare personnel are protected against both seasonal flu and the 2009 H1N1 virus,” says Linda R. Greene, director of infection prevention and control at Rochester General Health System. “Otherwise, facilities could face a double problem of increased illness and absenteeism among staff, coupled with overcrowded emergency departments.”

APIC has spoken. It’s time to listen. No more excuses, employees. Close your eyes, clench your teeth and squeeze your teddy bear, if necessary—but get your shots.

For more information:

Healthcare facilities should implement all of the guidelines for influenza vaccination of healthcare personnel from the CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), according to APIC.

APIC’s recommendations are published in the APIC position paper “Influenza Immunization of Healthcare Personnel.” Click here to see it.

More information about the 2009 H1N1 flu is available at www.apic.org/swineflu and at www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu.