Pressroom

Source: HealthCanal.com

01/11/2012

Although vaccines are being offered at pharmacies, workplaces, and retail medical clinics, a new study by the RAND Corporation says adult vaccination rates could get a boost from office-based medical practices offering them as part of routine visits. Katherine Harris, lead author of the study and a RAND senior economist, says: “Regardless of where vaccines are actually administered, office-based providers are uniquely positioned to identify patients who need vaccination, to communicate credibly about the benefits and risks of vaccination, and to ensure that vaccination histories are properly maintained.” In order for office-based medical providers to better promote immunization to adult patients, tools to enhance communications between patients and providers should be developed, and stronger incentives should be offered to providers who do not offer vaccines so that they refer patients to community sites that do. In addition to curtailing the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases, increasing adult immunization rates could reduce healthcare and productivity costs, which reach upwards of $90 billion per year for influenza alone. Despite the fact that a majority of adults turn to their medical providers for vaccinations, a short shelf life and low insurance payments mean just 25 percent of physician practices carry all of the recommended adult vaccines, according to the researchers. Improvements could be facilitated if more data on patterns of office-based adult vaccinations is gathered, better guidance to promote and administer vaccines is created, better tools to help providers determine whether to administer vaccines themselves or refer patients to community sites are developed, and systems to credit primary care physicians for offering vaccine counseling are established.