A St. Jude quality improvement initiative that greatly increased the employee vaccination rate for pertussis, or whooping cough, offers a model for other health care institutions nationwide.
Previously, about 58 percent of St. Jude health care workers with patient contact had received the Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis) vaccine, said Elisabeth Adderson, MD, of St. Jude Infectious Diseases. That percentage is about double the national average for health care workers. Yet, Adderson and her colleagues believed they could improve that rate.
Through a robust campaign, she and her team increased the vaccination rate to 90 percent.
The researchers shared their techniques with other hospitals in the scientific journal Vaccine.