Why do hospitals promote Flu shots so bad?

Nurses General Nursing

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I was hired through an agency to work as a nurse, giving flu shots during the flu season at a very well known hospital. Hospital administration is so eager for me to give as many flu shots as I can to patients. Does the hospital really care about patients not getting the flu or is there something else more?

Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.

Because the hospital actually gets one trillion dollars for every flu shot you give. Kickbacks and all that.

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Promote "so bad"? What does that even mean?

Must be similar to "hurt so bad," like the Linda Ronstadt song.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
Because the hospital actually gets one trillion dollars for every flu shot you give. Kickbacks and all that.

Even if that is true, so what? It's one area where a "kickback" would be good. Forestalling a *preventable* disease for millions of patients and staff alike, would be, to me, a great reason to get a "kickback". They would actually being doing the community some good for that money.

Do you have evidence you can present here, that proves they are getting such "one trillion dollar" kickbacks? I for one, would like to know the actual statistics and figures. And I am naturally just curious.

I have a feeling if we could channel those so horrendously affected in 1918 by the great epidemic, they would love to tell us how preventing such widespread mayhem can't be anything but a good thing. None of us here today can speak to the abject horror such an event wrought on lives; we were not there. I can't even.

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Specializes in CEN.
Even if that is true, so what?

I took it to mean that she was joking, that there are so many advantages to giving patients the vaccine that this shouldn't even be a question. At least I hope that's what the poster meant.

In response to OP, As nurses we are supposed to be health promoters and educators. Flu prevention is one way of reducing trips to the hospital during the winter. I take the shot every year religiously and insist my husband take it as well.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I took it to mean that she was joking, that there are so many advantages to giving patients the vaccine that this shouldn't even be a question. At least I hope that's what the poster meant.

In response to OP, As nurses we are supposed to be health promoters and educators. Flu prevention is one way of reducing trips to the hospital during the winter. I take the shot every year religiously and insist my husband take it as well.

Maybe, I could be wrong--- and she is joking. But I am not so sure. Some folks here believe immunizations to be a government (or other) conspiracy on the "sheeple" of our country.

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Some of us have and do take care of patients that have had some pretty bad outcomes related to flu. At my last hospital there were always a few people a year that expired related to the flu. Mostly the elderly.

Doesn't take much to push a fragile patient over the edge.

Why do they push it? Because it is a stupid simple intervention that saves lives is why. The push back is disgusting.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
I have a feeling if we could channel those so horrendously affected in 1918 by the great epidemic, they would love to tell us how preventing such widespread mayhem can't be anything but a good thing. None of us here today can speak to the abject horror such an event wrought on lives; we were not there. I can't even.

The same could be said of pretty much any vaccine preventable disease. Personally, I don't understand the opposition that many have to vaccines, including the flu vaccine.

Why do hospitals push for it? Because it's a heck of a lot cheaper than someone on a vent or ECMO for weeks on end. It's better than thousands dying of the disease or associated complications. And yes, there are monetary reasons- the facility that mandates vaccination of employees won't be paying out as much in sick leave and overtime to cover those shifts that were left empty by sick employees.

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
The same could be said of pretty much any vaccine preventable disease. Personally, I don't understand the opposition that many have to vaccines, including the flu vaccine.

Why do hospitals push for it? Because it's a heck of a lot cheaper than someone on a vent or ECMO for weeks on end. It's better than thousands dying of the disease or associated complications. And yes, there are monetary reasons- the facility that mandates vaccination of employees won't be paying out as much in sick leave and overtime to cover those shifts that were left empty by sick employees.

Not to mention, if someone comes in for a knee replacement or other unrelated issue and ends up staying longer for flu complications because they caught it from an unvaccinated employee who was working while contagious, the hospital doesn't get reimbursed for the additional costs.

All kinds of financial reasons for hospitals to want EVERYONE to get vaccinated, in addition to simply promoting health in the community.

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The newer push is not about saving lives, if it were hospitals would have pushed as hard for flu vac prior to the ACA and the development of CMS Star Ratings.

The push now is to achieve and maintain a 5 star rating, which affects marketing and reimbursement. As a positive consequence more people are vaccinated, which was the intention for saving money.

Here is but one link..

https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Prescription-Drug-Coverage/PrescriptionDrugCovGenIn/Downloads/2016-Trends-in-Part-C-and-D-Star-Ratings-Cut-Points.pdf

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Specializes in LTC, Rehab.

"The influenza or flu pandemic of 1918 to 1919, the deadlist in modern history, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide - about one-third of the planet's population at the time - and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims. More than 25 percent of the U.S. population became sick, and some 675,000 Americans died during the pandemic." history.com

There's a short (an hour long?) PBS video you can watch - might even be on YouTube - on that pandemic that'll blow your mind.

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Specializes in Stepdown telemetry, vascular nursing..

Herd immunity, low immune systems in elderly etc

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

In their annual very aggressive promotion they Infection Control Nurse Director where I work pointed out that we have several immunocompromised coworkers (probably not nurses) that can't get the flu shot and it's up to us to provide immunity to them through the "herd" concept. While I have not had the flu in about 40 years, and only twice have gotten the flu shot. I can't argue with this and will probably get it when it's offered next week.

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