Can a universal influenza immunization program reduce emergency department volume?

Can a universal influenza immunization program reduce emergency department volume?

OBJECTIVES In 2000 the Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care announced a universal influenza immunization program for Ontario, Canada. The 2 objectives of this $38-million program were to decrease seasonal impact of influenza on emergency department (ED) visits and to decrease the number and severity of influenza cases. This paper examines the correlation between population influenza ra...

Tangelo County Health Department Adult Influenza Immunization Program

Each year about 48,000 adults die from vaccine preventable diseases in the United States. The purpose of immunization programs is to prevent illness and death from diseases such as influenza, pneumococcal disease, hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus, measles, mumps, and rubella. The public health objectives established by Healthy People 2010 include a goal of achieving 90% immunization coverage of...

Influenza immunization: universal or selected?

Dear Editor, Our recently published article in the Brazilian Archives of Cardiologia1 aimed to evaluate the implementation of vaccination against influenza (INF) and Pneumococcus virus (pneumonia) in a specific subgroup of patients with heart failure (HF), due to consensus recommendation of the NorthAmerican, European and Brazilian guidelines on HF. The increased susceptibility to respiratory i...

universal factors affecting emergency department crowding

Emergency department visit volume variability

OBJECTIVE One of the most important and basic variables in emergency department (ED) operations is patient visit volumes. This variable is usually predicted on the basis of the average ED patient visit volume over a certain period. However, ED patient visit variability is poorly understood. Therefore, we evaluated ED patient visit variability in order to determine if the average can be used to ...