Immunization outreach using individual need assessments of adults at an army hospital

Abstract

A comprehensive assessment of the immunization status of 2,451 adults was carried out at Walter Reed Army Medical Center's Allergy-Clinical Immunology Service, Washington, DC, during an influenza immunization program from October 1985 through February 1986. More than 66 percent of those screened needed either immunization other than for influenza, or an immunologic test, a decline from 72 percent noted during a 1984-85 influenza immunization program. The mean number of interventions was 2.00 per patient in the 1985-86 program and 2.26 during the previous program. Of patients screened in the period 1985-86, 20.5 percent received diphtheria-tetanus toxoids, 15.7 percent received pneumococcal vaccine, and 23.1 percent received a tuberculin skin test. Vaccination or titers for measles were ordered for 10.4 percent, for rubella for 10.9 percent, and for hepatitis B for 20.3 percent. Assessment of those who came to the clinic for influenza vaccination in the second program demonstrated that the needs of some patients had been met in the first program. However, a general lack of immune protection existed in the majority of patients screened in the second program. In both programs, those older than 59 years needed pneumococcal vaccine and diphtheria-tetanus toxoids more frequently than the general population. The means of the numbers of interventions and the percentages of patients needing intervention other than influenza vaccine declined from the first program to the second, suggesting progress in meeting some individual immunization needs in a large and changing ambulatory population.