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Meeting Patients Where They Are: A Nurse-Driven Quality Improvement Project To Provide Influenza Vaccinations In The Emergency Department, Stacie Hunsaker, Larry Garrett, Katreena Merrill, Rachelle Rhodes

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Influenza is highly contagious, vaccine-preventable, and may result in significant morbidity and mortality. While vaccination is the primary protection against influenza, vaccination rates remain low. Traditionally, primary care clinics, retail pharmacies, and public health departments offer influenza vaccines. However, offering influenza vaccines in new settings may increase their availability to the public and increase community uptake. This project aimed to add emergency departments as a new influenza vaccine location to increase the number of vaccines distributed during the 2020 to 2021 influenza season.

Methods: Adult patients discharged from 24 emergency departments were included in this pre- post-intervention project. A …