title: Can we know the immunization status of healthcare workers? Results of a feasibility study in hospital trusts, England, 2008.
abstract: In England, there is no surveillance system for vaccines offered to healthcare workers apart from that in place annually for the seasonal influenza vaccine. To inform the feasibility of a general vaccine uptake surveillance system and to understand which policies are currently in place, we conducted a survey in the 162 National Health Service Foundation and Acute Hospital trusts in England, by submitting a questionnaire to their occupational health departments on immunization policies and methods of storing vaccine uptake data. In total, 104 hospital trusts (64.2%) responded. All responders offer hepatitis B, tuberculosis, measles-mumps-rubella, and influenza vaccines to healthcare workers; 0.9% reported not offering varicella and 13.5% not offering tetanus-diphtheria-polio; 66.4% record staff eligible for immunizations and 68.2% record staff they have immunized. Our study suggests that setting up a surveillance system to monitor vaccine uptake in healthcare workers is possible but would be challenging, given the variation in current systems.
authors.affiliation: European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET), European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden. lorenzo.pezz@gmail.com
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pezzoli
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Noakes
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gates
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Begum
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Pebody
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004739:England; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D055991:Health Records, Personal; D006801:Humans; D007114:Immunization / Q000592:standards*; D007115:Immunization Schedule; D016272:Occupational Health; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000592:standards*