WVU Medicine Vaccine Initiative highlighted by the American Thoracic Society

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – WVU Medicine has been highlighted for its participation in the American Thoracic Society’s (ATS) Vaccine Initiative, which aims to increase COVID-19, influenza and routine vaccination rates among high-risk patients nationally, specifically adults with respiratory conditions.

The ATS is one of seven specialty societies to be awarded a grant from the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, and has, in turn, partnered with and funded eight healthcare systems across the U.S. over the course of the award to test and implement strategies to improve vaccine uptake using a quality improvement (QI) approach.

In addition to WVU Medicine WVU Hospitals in Morgantown, the participating health systems include Grady Health in Atlanta; Meharry Medical College in Nashville; the University of Arizona/Banner Health; the University of California San Francisco/San Francisco Health Network; the University of Colorado; St. Luke’s Health System in Kansas City; and Wayne Health in Detroit.

When the WVU Medicine team initiated its project, they decided to look at what was happening with vaccination in the Pulmonary clinics. They created a process in patients’ electronic medical records that would remind providers to discuss vaccines. While they are in the process of reviewing data for the past year to assess the impact on vaccination rates in the Pulmonary clinic, early data suggests that this simple intervention has led to an increase in vaccination rates.

“WVU Medicine was one of the vanguard health centers of the ATS Vaccine Initiative, and we have found that a number of the health systems coming into the project are following suit with our electronic medical record intervention,” Robert Stansbury, M.D., WVU Medicine pulmonologist and Vaccine Project lead, said.

“This intervention provides important data on the clinician-patient interaction, serves as an effective way to assess barriers/facilitators to vaccination, and gives a more granular look at reasons why patients who are due to receive vaccines are not provided with one in clinic.”

After reviewing patient questionnaire data, the team found that many patients prefer to discuss vaccinations directly with their healthcare providers.

“This is an early finding from our questionnaire data,” Dr. Stansbury said. “We are still trying to determine whether this is true of all vaccines or specific vaccines and whether this is a unique finding in our Appalachian population.”

The WVU Medicine QI Project Team includes Stansbury; Nicole Stout, D.P.T., vaccine implementation science lead; Toni Rudisill, Ph.D., vaccine program evaluation lead; Jesse Thompson, Ph.D., biomedical research scientist; Kevin Halbritter, M.D., population health and data management lead; Haroon Ahmed, M.D., vaccine project QI and clinical lead; Christine Del-Prado Rico, M.D., chief fellow; Sauradeep Sarakar, M.D., senior fellow; Stephanie Boyd, D.N.P., WVUH quality management; Hanna Davis, WVUH quality analyst; and Bethany Holt, WVUH manager of ambulatory services.

They participated in the ATS Vaccine Initiative learning and sharing session at the ATS 2024 International Conference in San Diego in May. The session brought together representatives from health systems involved in the ATS Vaccine Initiative to share their findings and discuss what they have learned from their work in improving vaccination rates in the clinic.

“This meeting was phenomenal, and I think gave important insights to all those who attended. There were certainly differences between the health systems, but what struck me most were the similarities across the diverse health systems,” Stansbury said.

“Our team is looking forward to gathering more data on vaccine interventions and further collaboration with the other health systems to identify broad interventions to improve vaccination rates in high-risk individuals with respiratory disease. Importantly, we believe our work will identify ways that these interventions can be adapted and tailored to most effectively address vaccination in our local rural communities.”

“Vaccines are one of the most effective tools we have to prevent and limit the impact of infections. Vaccines are literal lifesavers, particularly for vulnerable patients,” Michael Stevens, M.D., M.P.H., WVU Medicine system healthcare epidemiologist, said. “The work Dr. Stansbury and his team are doing to increase vaccination is terrific, and it’s no surprise is being celebrated nationally.”

To view WVU Medicine’s ATS Vaccine Initiative Spotlight, click here. For more information on WVU Medicine Pulmonary Medicine, click here.