Failure to Vaccinate Medicare Inpatients

Results: Of the 104976 patients with a single hospitalization, 35 169 (33.5%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 33.2%-33.8%) received pneumococcal vaccination prior to admission, 444 (0.4%; 95% CI, 0.4%-0.5%) were vaccinated in the hospital, and 1076 (1.0%; 95% CI, 1.0%1.1%) were vaccinated within 30 days of discharge. In the subgroup of 40488 patients discharged from October through December, 12782 (31.6%; 95% CI, 31.1%32.0%) received influenza vaccination prior to admission, 755 (1.9%; 95% CI, 1.7%-2.0%) were vaccinated in the hospital, and 4302 (10.6%; 95% CI, 10.3%-10.9%) were vaccinated after discharge. Of patients who were unvaccinated prior to admission, 97.3% (95% CI, 97.1%97.5%) did not receive influenza vaccine and 99.4% (95% CI, 99.3%-99.4%) did not receive pneumococcal vaccine before hospital discharge. Conclusion: National recommendations for inpatient vaccination against influenza and pneumococcal disease are not being followed for the vast majority of eligible Medicare patients admitted to the hospital. Arch Intern Med. 2002;162:2349-2356