Evaluation of Inpatient Influenza and Pneumococcal Vaccination Acceptance Rates With Pharmacist Education

To detail the implementation of a pharmacist-driven education program targeting patients who originally declined pneumococcal or influenza vaccination upon hospital admission and to evaluate the results.

Patients admitted to a small community hospital who qualified to receive pneumococcal polysaccharide or influenza vaccination but declined upon admission were educated in person by pharmacists or pharmacy interns and reoffered vaccination. Patient education sheets were provided. Data were obtained via pharmacy intervention documentation in the pharmacy order entry system. Staff documented the outcome of counseling for each patient.

A total of 214 and 83 patients receiving influenza and pneumococcal vaccination counseling, respectively, were evaluated. As a result, 23.4% ( P = .06) and 26.5% (n = 83, P = .18) of patients agreed to receive influenza and pneumococcal vaccines, respectively. An unanticipated subset of patients were undecided after counseling and wanted to consider the information further before making a final decision. Taken together with those who consented to receive the vaccine after counseling, 39.2% ( P = .001) and 45.8% ( P = .01) of patients were influenced by the influenza and pneumococcal vaccination counseling, respectively.

Patient education performed by a pharmacist or pharmacy intern showed a trend toward increased pneumococcal and influenza vaccination acceptance rates for inpatients who had initially declined.