An immunization quality improvement learning collaborative in the college health setting

Abstract

Objective

To increase administration of influenza (flu), human papillomavirus (HPV) and meningococcal serogroup B (MenB) vaccinations to students at college student health centers (SHCs).

Participants

Improvement teams from 45 US-based SHCs.

Methods

Teams participated in a 7-month virtual learning collaborative to implement immunization delivery best practices at their SHCs. A pre-post-intervention design was used to compare vaccination coverage in May 2017 to May 2018 among students who were unvaccinated at the start of the academic year.

Results

Data were compared from 29 SHCs and 152,648 students (2017) and from 18 SHCs and 122,315 students (2018). Percent of newly vaccinated students increased for ≥1 dose of flu vaccine by 14.3 percentage points to 32.3% (p < .01), ≥1 dose of HPV vaccine by 3.9 points to 7.8% (p < .05) and ≥3 doses of HPV vaccine by 0.7 points to 1.5% (p < .05).

Conclusions

Participating in a learning collaborative may help SHCs improve vaccination delivery.

Keywords:

• College
• practice guidelines
• quality improvement
• vaccination
• young adult

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the members of National College Health Immunization Collaborative expert panel for assistance with survey and collaborative program development.

Conflict of interest disclosure

This work was funded by a Pfizer, Inc. independent grant. All study coauthors received either salary support or an honorarium to conduct this study. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to legal requirements, of the United States. The protocol was reviewed by both the Children’s National Hospital and New York University Institutional Review Boards and determined to be exempt from further review.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by an investigator-initiated, independent grant from Pfizer, Inc. (Award# IIR27269125). Dr. Fu has received also other research grant funding from Pfizer, Inc.