title: Women's health providers as vaccine providers in public health emergencies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To understand women's health providers' vaccine practices and challenges to administering vaccines during public health emergencies.
  
  
  METHODS
  We surveyed a sample of women's health providers in Washington and California in 2010-2011 about their vaccine practices, perceptions, and emergency preparedness activities related to the 2009-2010 influenza campaign and ongoing pertussis outbreaks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 215 practices surveyed, 152 (70.7%) completed the survey. Most (83.8%) practices considered it standard of care to ask about vaccines and to require, encourage, or offer vaccines to their staff (84.8%). However, only a minority of practices have participated in emergency preparedness exercises (19.3%), actual emergency responses (4.6%), or medical surge capacity initiatives (1.3%). Notably, the challenges and barriers to providing vaccinations in a public health emergency were not practice-level factors such as storage space, staff illness, or reporting, but instead were factors such as vaccine supply, billing, and public interest.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Women's health providers have generally not been included in preparedness and emergency response activities despite their continuing vaccination efforts. Focusing on women's health providers' involvement in preparedness activities may improve opportunities to vaccinate an important high-risk group, especially in public health emergencies.
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Otterloo
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Seib
authors.forename: Kevin A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Ault
authors.forename: Saad B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Omer
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002140:California; D004189:Disaster Planning; D004630:Emergencies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016134:Organizational Policy; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011634:Public Health; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014611:Vaccination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014612:Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D014861:Washington; D014932:Women's Health Services
chemical_list: D014612:Vaccines