Use of the adult vaccine assessment tool in the geriatric population to increase vaccine referrals: a quality improvement project

Purpose of Project: Assessment of immunization status often goes unnoticed at times in the outpatient primary care practice, more often in the geriatric population. Immunization rates are very low in this age group, and vaccine preventable diseases and deaths are increasingly high. Research shows that annual vaccination in those over age 65 years and older were 65.4 percent for Influenza, 66.9 percent for Pneumonia and only 37.4 percent for Herpes Zoster (Talbird et. al., 2020). Methods: Use of “The Adult Vaccine Assessment Tool,” created by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The screening tool is a 10-point questionnaire with select all that apply, choose year, and yes/no questions that is quick and easy to use. This screening tool will be used on 50 older adults, between the age of 65 to 89 years old, in an outpatient primary care office in Central, New Jersey. Results: The information collected after each use will be divided into three categories: accepting all referrals, accepting partial referrals, and accepting no referrals. Conclusions: Full vaccine referral was 38.1% (n=16), partial vaccine referral was 47.6% (n=20). No vaccine referral was 14.3% (n=6). Implication for Practice: This screening tool will be recommended for use on all older adult patients to increase vaccine rates. The aim of this quality improvement project is to standardize implementation of The Adult Vaccine Assessment Tool in the geriatric population in an outpatient primary care setting, to increase referrals rates for the at-risk population.D.N.P.Includes bibliographical reference