P-225 a Multipronged Approach to Increase Influenza Vaccination Take-Up Rate Amongst Health Workers in a Tertiary Hospital in Singapore During Covid-19 Pandemic

Introduction Influenza vaccination is strongly encouraged for all health workers (HW) to reduce the risk of acquisition and transmission to patients and co-workers during the influenza season. This is essential to minimize hospital operation disruption during influenza season, including during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to study different approaches to increase the influenza vaccination take-up rate in a tertiary hospital in Singapore. Methods Traditionally, there are two ways influenza vaccine is offered during influenza seasons. The centralized approach is a walk-in system during office hours, and the decentralized approach utilizes nurses from clinical departments as vaccinators to vaccinate their peers. The take-up rate remains suboptimal despite these two approaches. We worked with different stakeholders to adopt additional approaches to enhance the take-up rate, including policy change, support from leadership and repeated reminders by supervisors, weekly data analysis to identify departments with low take-up rates, and a mobile vaccine team. Results Multipronged approaches helped to increase the influenza vaccination take-up rate from 77% in the year 2018 to > 90% during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and maintained at >80% since 2021, possibly due to competition from COVID-19 vaccine and vaccine fatigue. Discussion An increased influenza vaccination take-up rate was observed when adopting multi-pronged and innovative approaches. This required support from various stakeholders and increased awareness amongst HW. Conclusion Multipronged approaches are essential to increase the influenza vaccination take-up rate among HW. Similar approaches can be adopted and applied to other vaccinations which are essential for HW.