American Nurses Association Recognizes Baylor Health Care System For Best Practices in Seasonal Influenza Immunization

Baylor One of Only Five Organizations Nationwide Awarded

Contact: Wendy Walker, 214-820-4581
Email: wendyw@baylorhealth.edu

(DALLAS, Oct. 9, 2007) - The American Nurses Association (ANA) has recognized Baylor Health Care System with a "Best Practices in Seasonal Influenza Immunization" award as part of a program designed to identify organizations that successfully increased vaccination rates of their employees. These best practices will be compiled into a guide book for use by health care systems and personnel around the country. In addition to Baylor, only four other organizations around the country, including Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine; Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle, Wash.; Emory HealthCare in Atlanta, Ga.; and Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio; were bestowed this honor.

"Baylor's influenza vaccination campaign achieved an employee vaccination rate of 64% (based on 14,000 employees), far exceeding the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-reported national rates of 36% to 43% for health care personnel," said Rosemary Luquire, R.N., Ph.D., F.A.A.N., C.N.A.A., chief nursing officer, Baylor Health Care System. "We are proud of the commitment by our nursing staff, who passionately implemented this campaign, as well as teams of employees in pharmacy, employee health, patient safety, infection control, human resources, and marketing. We are also thankful to Baylor leadership who supported our work."

"We are honored to receive this award and will continue to stay on the leading edge of quality and patient safety, researching innovative and patient-centered approaches to the delivery of health care," said Joel Allison, president and CEO, Baylor Health Care System. "Baylor's vision is to be trusted as the best place to give and receive safe, quality, compassionate health care. By keeping our employees healthy, we are providing one more safeguard for the well-being of our patients and community."

It is well-known that the transmission of influenza from health care personnel to patients can create serious health care problems, especially among those who are at high risk for complications related to influenza. Baylor's best practices around vaccinating its employees for influenza included:

• significant involvement by nursing and executive leadership, as well as a physician champion, who invited employees to contact him anytime — days, nights and weekends — with questions or concerns about the vaccination.
• ease and accessibility, including the employee health nurses traveling to areas where employees were gathered, such as the cafeterias and departmental meetings.
• the implementation of an Intranet-based flu education program that all employees were required to complete.
• a communications campaign utilizing fliers, newsletters and emails focusing on the importance of employee and patient safety related to influenza, as well as stickers bearing the slogan "I Got My Flu Shot," given to employees who were vaccinated.

The ANA is the only full-service professional organization representing the nation's 2.9 million registered nurses through its 54 constituent member associations. The ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public. For more information about the ANA, visit www.nursingworld.org.

Baylor Health Care System is a network of hospitals, primary care and specialty care centers, rehabilitation clinics, affiliated ambulatory surgery centers and the Baylor Research Institute. Baylor University Medical Center, flagship hospital of the system, is a major patient care, teaching and research center for the Southwest. For fiscal year 2007, Baylor Health Care System will report $390 million in community benefit to the Texas Department of State Health Services.