Time with patients, staff support boost flu shot rates.

2004 MAY 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Even when doctors have standing orders to give flu shots to older patients, they don't do it often enough because of lack of time or adequate staff support, a recent study has found.

The researchers, who observed 243 patients in doctors' offices in San Diego, Rochester, New York, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, found that 38% left without a shot. The study suggested that each doctor have at least four staff people, that a staff person should inquire about immunizations before the exam began, and that the doctor spend at least 10 minutes with the patient and ask about a flu shot during the exam.

When all four elements were in place, more than 90% of the patients studied left properly vaccinated. But all four pieces have to be present to make the system work, they say.

"Each activity in itself increased the likelihood of an immunization occurring, but the full sequence of events was more powerful than any combination of individual activities," said lead researcher John Fontanesi, PhD, of the University of California, San Diego. He and his colleagues used industrial-quality engineering techniques called ...