Healthy Patients- A Strategy to Improve Pneumococcal Vaccination Rates

The Lovelace Medical Center TCAB team dramatically improved the delivery of Pneumococcal vaccinations to hospitalized patients from 48% to 98%. Pneumococcal disease is the leading cause of vaccine preventable illness and death in the U.S. The vaccine is recommended that all people 65 years and older and persons with certain conditions and is so important that CMS requires hospitals to document that patients were screened and given the medication. The TCAB nurses identified that the process for screening patients was not standardized on the TCAB unit so they identified what was missing, and then tested a new strategy to assure patients receive this important vaccination. They developed and tested a detailed admission and screening form that they scan and send to pharmacy for every patient needing the vaccination. This form not only alerts the pharmacy to send the medication, it also provides the necessary documentation. The Lovelace team also took this a step further and tested the practice of the charge nurse reviewing this form with another nurse prior to patient discharge to ensure that the patient did indeed receive the Pneumococcal vaccination. This practice was so successful on the TCAB unit- it has been implemented throughout the hospital.

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