TUESDAY, Jan. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Use of a simple point-of-care paper reminder form is associated with an increase in the percentage of immunosuppressed rheumatology patients who remain up-to-date with their pneumococcal vaccinations, according to research published in the January issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.Sonali P. Desai, M.D., M.P.H., of the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues evaluated the effects of a quality improvement strategy involving a paper point-of-care reminder form designed to increase the percentage of immunosuppressed patients who kept up-to-date with pneumococcal vaccination, in a rheumatology practice. The cohort included 3,717 patients who were taking immunosuppressive medications (66.0 percent with rheumatoid arthritis; 74.1 percent women).
The researchers found that, in the time period following the intervention, there was a significant increase in the rate of patients who were up-to-date with pneumococcal vaccination for rheumatologists in the intervention (67.6 to 80.0 percent), compared with a stable rate among rheumatologists in the nonintervention control (52.3 to 52.0 percent). Positive predictors of receiving the appropriate vaccinations including having received the intervention (hazard ratio [HR], 3.58), having a primary care physician affiliated with Brigham and Women's Hospital (HR, 1.68), having a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus (HR, 1.57), and being 56 to 65 years of age at baseline (HR, 1.24).
