More health care workers getting flu shot

As of Oct. 1, Kaiser Permanente workers who are not vaccinated against the flu will wear a mask.

That's the agreement the national health system has reached with the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which represents 105,000 Kaiser employees across the country.

Deanna Dudley, executive director of national labor relations, said Kaiser Permanente has long acknowledged that having workers immunized against the flu is a best practice in patient safety. In the past, Kaiser Permanente hosted voluntary campaigns in efforts to improve immunization rates, she said. But the policy is now part of the collective bargaining agreement.

"It's amazing when both management and labor have the same goals in mind," Dudley said. "That's pretty unique in the world of labor and management."

The agreement states that workers will either get a seasonal flu vaccination or wear a surgical mask during the flu season while working in patient-care areas. The goal is to protect Kaiser Permanente's 10 million members and patients.

The flu season varies year to year and Kaiser Permanente will follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's monitoring of flu activity.

In the last flu season, the flu vaccination rate for union and non-union employees ranged from 75 to 85 percent, Dudley said.

In Kaiser Permanente Northwest, the rate overall rate was 74.6 percent; it was 84.4 percent for physicians and 90.4 percent for dentists.

The CDC recommends an annual flu shot to everyone older than 6 months. Older people, younger people, pregnant people and people with certain chronic diseases are at higher risk for complications from the flu. While it is not known how many people die each year from the flu, the CDC estimated that between 3,000 and 49,000 people died from the flu between the 1976-1977 season and the 2006-2007 season.

Boosting the rates and awareness of flu vaccinations has become a priority in Oregon in recent years, since the state started requiring hospitals to report their rates in 2009. The requirement soon expanded to long-term care facilities and ambulatory surgical centers.

Since, Oregon hospital employees' flu vaccination rates increased from 65 percent in the 2010-2011 season to 82 percent in the 2013-2014 season, the most recent data available, according to the Oregon Health Authority.

The Healthy People 2020 objective for hospitals was 75 percent by 2015 and 90 percent by 2020.

Salem Health also has been using policy and a campaign to boost its workers' flu vaccination rates in the last three years. Similarly to Kaiser Permanente's policy, Salem Health also requires its workers to be vaccinated or wear a mask while within 6 feet of a patient during the flu season. Those who don't want to be vaccinated are required to submit a declination form.

It also provides flu shot clinics so its employees and medical staff can be immunized on-site, spokesman Mark Glyzewski said.

Salem Health improved its rate from 67 percent in 2012 to 92 percent in the 2014-2015 season, he said.

According to an Oregon Health Authority report from the 2013-2014 season, 61 percent of Oregon hospitals are consistently exceeding the 75 percent vaccination mark.

West Valley Hospital, a subsidiary of Salem Health, had the state's top rate, at 97.2 percent, followed by Santiam Hospital at 93.7 percent. Silverton Hospital's rate was 77.8 percent.

syoo@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6673 or follow at Twitter.com/syoo