I
f you're struggling like we were
to convince your employees to
get flu shots, you might want to
follow our creative solution — make
influenza vaccination a condition of
a pay raise. That's right: To be eligi-
ble for annual salary increases, staff
members must either be vaccinated
or submit requests for legitimate reli-
gious or health exemptions.
We didn't want to make vaccina-
tion a condition of employment, but
we were struggling to convince
more employees to get flu shots.
During the 2011-2012 flu season, our
success rates were only 65% and
71%. We asked ourselves, "If get-
ting vaccinated is the right thing to
do for our patients, why don't we
have higher participation levels?"
Before we tied flu shots to pay-
checks, we tried a different
approach that didn't work nearly as
well. We told staff members they
either had to get vaccinated or
wear masks during influenza season
every time they were within 6 feet of
others. Our success rate actually
zoomed up to 89%, but the masks
were a problem. Staff morale suf-
fered (they viewed the masks as
punitive), compliance was difficult
to monitor, masks were often worn
inappropriately and anecdotal evi-
dence suggested that overall com-
pliance was low. We also knew that
evidence supporting the value of
masks in preventing the spread of
MONEY TALKS
How to Convince Your Staff to Get Flu $hots
FLU SEASON
Ever consider
linking influenza
vaccinations to
salary increases?
IDEAS
That Work
O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 4
2 0
