Taking a Shot at the Flu
"Flu Fighter" Denise Dulude, R.N., Specialty Clinics Nurse Manager, prepares a flu cart for action.
The VA Boston Healthcare System’s Flu Taskforce implemented a strategic plan that has led to a significant increase in the system’s flu compliance rate, though VA employees are not currently mandated to get the flu vaccination.
“When we started the effort last August, just over 6 percent of our staff members had received their flu shots,” said Chief of Occupational Health Robert Sprague, M.D. “By this March, we jumped to 71 percent.”
The multi-disciplinary taskforce was led by Dr. Sprague and included Judy Strymish, M.D., chief of infection prevention, Vanessa Coronel, patient safety nurse, and Pallas Wahl, public affairs specialist.
The team developed a four-part strategy:
- Use every possible means to educate.
- Make the influenza vaccine more easily accessible.
- Validate the number of actual employees and enhance reporting of flu shots received outside the VA (using a desktop flu icon added system-wide to report these shots).
- Know the barriers; implement fixes and share lessons learned with central office.
Working with a cross-section of nearly 40 other staff members, known as the “VA BHS Flu Fighters,” the taskforce developed a number of ways to make the vaccine more accessible, such as:
- Bringing the flu shots to the staff by using roving flu carts during events publicized as “Flu Extravaganzas,” which were also meant to add a dose of humor into the mix.
- Creating an all-day event, the “Flu Blitz,” held in November 2013, during which vaccines were offered in the lobbies and other highly-populated areas of all campuses.
“We went all out to publicize the events and started the campaign two months earlier than the normal start of flu season, in August instead of October 2013,” said Coronel, who served as the creative director for the taskforce.
Campaign materials included eye-catching screensavers, which appealed to both logic and emotions.
Wahl crafted over-head announcements, email blasts, and internet/intranet posting of Flu Clinic schedules. She also held a Facebook town hall/live Q&A event about the flu that reached patients, Veterans, staff and the public (a first for VA Boston).
New interventions included the development of a desktop icon that allowed employees who received the flu vaccine outside the VA to quickly and easily report it. An amusing online educational game was also implemented to boost employees’ understanding of flu prevention.
Lessons learned by the taskforce for the next flu prevention effort included:
- Start the campaign earlier (May instead of August).
- Apply for grant to improve funding.
- Recruit and train flu “champions” three months prior to flu season.
- Implement the flu carts twice on every campus, if the manpower is available, and publicize the routes.
- Enhance compliance by better soliciting active support of service chiefs.
- Take more advantage of social media.
“We couldn’t have done this without the support of so many others at all levels of the organization. With so many committed staff members, it became a very creative, efficient effort,” Dr. Strymish noted, “The Flu Fighters really made a difference.”
For more information about strategies and innovations, please contact Vanessa Coronel: Vanessa.Coronel@va.gov
