Improving the public health/physician partnership for influenza vaccination

Alberta doctors can request supplies of publicly funded influenza vaccine to administer to patients who meet provincial program criteria.

To describe the proportions of Alberta family doctors who vaccinate patients, the sources from which they obtain vaccine and their evaluation of public health influenza vaccination program components.

Cross-sectional postal survey, 2003. Doctors were asked to complete a nine-page questionnaire or to answer a one-page "mini-survey". The proportion of physicians who vaccinated patients against influenza was estimated separately for the main questionnaire and the mini-survey. Frequencies and cross-tabulations were used to examine sources of vaccine supply and physician ratings of five aspects of influenza vaccine program services provided by Regional Health Authorities (RHA).

The survey response rate was 52.3% (1387/2650); an additional 14% (372) returned a mini-survey. The proportion of respondents who vaccinated one or more patients against influenza in the fall of 2002 was 81.5% for the main questionnaire and 83.1% for the mini-survey. Vaccine was most commonly obtained from the RHA. Three items were rated as poor/fair by more than 10% of respondents: provision of information for distribution to patients (37%), timeliness of vaccine delivery to offices (16%) and vaccine availability over the entire influenza season (18%). Item ratings varied by RHA but provision of information for distribution to patients was consistently a problem.

A high priority should be placed on improving resources for doctors to give to patients, timeliness of vaccine deliveries to doctors' offices and vaccine availability over the entire season.