title: Providing opportunistic immunisations for at-risk inpatients in a tertiary paediatric hospital.
abstract: Attaining high immunisation coverage rates for children with medical conditions is vital. The Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) Immunisation Service has the opportunity to check each inpatient's immunisation status and provide opportunistic vaccines and/or bring the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register (ACIR) up-to-date. This paper highlights that during admission, one quarter of children were not up-to-date with routine scheduled immunisations and 42% of those inpatients due or overdue for immunisation were vaccinated. The model of establishing routine checking of immunisation records and reminding hospital staff about immunisation can result in improvements in vaccination coverage. Healthcare providers have a responsibility to check immunisation status and offer vaccines when necessary; however, often there are missed opportunities to immunise. This paper demonstrates that having a dedicated Immunisation Service, a partnership with a relevant government agency, and effective collaboration with inpatient clinical teams, opportunistic immunisation can be achieved for inpatients.
authors.affiliation: Immunisation Service, Department of General Medicine, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Sonja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Elia
authors.affiliation: Immunisation Service, Department of General Medicine, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.|Vaccine and Immunisation Research Group (VIRGo), Murdoch Children's Research, Institute and Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Kirsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Perrett
authors.affiliation: Nursing Research Department, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.|Departments of Nursing and Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Newall
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001315:Australia; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007114:Immunization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007223:Infant; D007297:Inpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D010371:Pediatric Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012308:Risk Management / Q000379:methods*; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014611:Vaccination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: children; hospital; immunisation