Italian hospitals policies for the prevention of influenza in health care workers

This study aims to understand influenza vaccination programs in Italian hospitals and to identify the determinants to increase the coverage. We adopted a mailed self-administered questionnaire. Globally mean Health Care Workers (HCWs) coverage rate resulted 14.3%. Physicians had a statistically significant higher coverage as well as HCWs operating in infectious diseases wards. Strategies adopted are: poster (68.2%), personalized phone calls (40.9%). Only offering the vaccination in wards significantly improved coverage rate. Six hospitals (27.3%) evaluated the effects of the campaign paying attention to workers protection and its economic impact. None of them evaluated spread of influenza and its complications in patients. This survey shows that influenza vaccination in Italian hospitals is still a challenge because of low attention and compliance.