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Some physicians concerned about school-located vaccination efforts
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Most physicians support vaccination programs based in schools for their patients, but some are concerned these clinics may affect the number of children attending well-child visits and could make it hard to track their patients’ vaccinations, according to survey results.
Emily V. McCormick, MPH, of the CDC’s Public Health Prevention Service, and colleagues mailed a survey between July and September 2010 to 1,337 Colorado family physicians and pediatricians.
Emily V. McCormick
The researchers said more than half of the 584 participating physicians supported the administration of influenza and adolescent vaccines in schools, but half of the respondents also believed this approach could financially affect their practice. Physician support for school-located clinics was greater for publicly insured patients compared with privately insured patients.
The researchers reported that more pediatricians than family physicians believed “school-located vaccination would make their patients less likely to attend well-child visits.”
“Although the majority of physicians surveyed were supportive of school-located vaccination, concerns regarding the impact of school-located vaccination on practice finances, well child care attendance, and the accuracy of their vaccination records were identified as possible barriers to a physician’s support of this delivery method,” McCormick and colleagues concluded. “Efforts to address these physician attitudes directly might increase physician support and collaboration with future school-located vaccination programs and subsequently increase vaccination rates.”
Disclosure: This work was supported by the CDC. McCormick reports no relevant financial disclosures.
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