The importance of vaccinating healthcare workers is realising a higher degree of interest than previously seen. With the recent support of the state employee health program and local strategies, increasing vaccination rates within a health district has become a higher priority. Even though the size of the health district has grown with recent amalgamations and coordinating more facilities is challenging, the results of a carefully planned program utilising strong marketing and communication strategies is proving highly effective.

Strategies such as targeting a specific facility or a staff group as part of the overall program has seen an increase in vaccination rates. In 2007, one facility involving mostly community health services increased the allocated time to offer vaccinations resulting in an increase of 8%. In the following year, the facility vaccination team increased the uptake again by another 5%. In the largest acute facility in the health district, nurses were targeted in 2008 as they had the lowest uptake of influenza vaccine. We appealed to their competitive spirit and compared their vaccination rates with other nursing units and with other staff groups. Posting weekly updates on the hospital email system and offering a perpetual award contributed to uptakes of over 60% in seven nursing units with the highest uptake being 81% in the adult mental health unit.

Other initiatives including a longer marketing period prior to vaccination, extending the vaccination offer for a longer period and regular weekly updates have also contributed to improving vaccination rates. A well-planned program with ongoing general and targeted improvement strategies is slowly overcoming the barriers to increasing vaccination rates of healthcare workers.