Percent of Pneumonia Patients Given Pneumococcal Vaccine
Why Is This Important?
The pneumococcal vaccine may help prevent or lower the risk of complications of pneumonia caused by bacteria. It may also help prevent future infections. Patients with pneumonia should be asked if they were vaccinated recently for pneumonia and, if not, should be given the vaccine.
About This Graph
Recognizing the importance of pneumococcal vaccination to prevent pneumonia, this measure indicates how often UMass Memorial Medical Center provides the vaccine to eligible patients as compared to other Massachusetts and U.S. hospitals. Higher percentages are better. (Graph data: Jan 2011 - Dec 2011.)
What Are We Doing to Improve?
Through standard audits, we identified vaccination of patients with pneumonia as an area for improvement. We reviewed which patients had not received the vaccination and barriers to receiving the vaccine were identified. A multidisciplinary taskforce implemented an educational program to support clinicians in understanding the indications for the vaccine. We have also implemented a computerized patient identification and tracking system in order to alert caregivers that the vaccine is indicated. We continue to monitor specific trends and focus improvement efforts in those areas that are not doing as well as others.