• TS: – Benchmark: The Joint Commission Gives a Shot in the Arm to Health Care Personnel Influenza Vaccination Rates [REF: BHC, IC, PI] The Source Jan 2012, Pg 1, Vol 10, # 8

Influenza is a serious illness that on average, leads to more than 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths each year. The transmission of influenza within health care facilities (by patients AND staff) is also a serious concern. According to the US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), vaccination is the single most effective preventive measure available against influenza. To help address this concern, IC.02.04.01 requires organizations to offer vaccinations to staff, including licensed independent practitioners. Despite such facts and requirements, vaccination rates among health care personnel (HCP) remain relatively low (i.e., < 60% as compared to the 90% benchmark established for 2020 by the Healthy People 2020 initiative. In this context, TJC recently extended applicability to all its accreditation programs (including BHC) and made other revisions to IC.02.04.01 EPs 1-4, 7 and 9 that became effective 7/1/12. The article provides a useful list of required accomplishments on page 15 that will facilitate compliance with the revisions. It also gives detailed advice for calculating vaccination rates as will be required by EP6 effective 7/1/13. To that end, “The Joint Commission also recommends using the specifications in Section 2a1 of NQF’s Measure Submission and Evaluation Worksheet 5.0 as the standardized methodology to calculate influenza vaccination rates for licensed independent practitioners and staff.”
Tip 1: Use the suggested worksheet. Review and evaluate your organization’s compliance with the revised standard against the 9 required accomplishments listed in the article on page 15.
Tip 2: For more details, see our RTN review of Joint Commission Revises Influenza Vaccination Standard: Applicability Extending to All Accreditation Programs in 2012 and the R3 Report on Influenza Vaccination (released 5/30/12)