Onsite flu vaccination clinics produced a 13.2 percentage point increase in vaccination rates among children with access, according to research in the scientific journal Vaccine. The research was conducted by a team of scientists representing UC Davis Health System, the Monroe County, NY, Department of Public Health, the University of Rochester Medical Center, and the CDC.
The clinics were part of a study examining the effectiveness of school-located vaccination against influenza (SLV-I). In the prospective, randomized trial, two onsite flu vaccination clinics were held four weeks apart at 21 elementary schools; another 11 schools served as the control-group site.
While there was an increase in vaccinated children, the per-dose direct cost, $54.26, of onsite school vaccination clinics was higher than the mean, $38.23, or median, $21.44, of the direct cost of flu vaccinations in pediatricians’ offices.
“This is likely because the start-up onsite program required substantial administration time and costs related to obtaining informed consent from parents,” said said Byung-Kwang Yoo, an associate professor of public health sciences at University of California Davis and lead author of the study. “Participation in the second clinics was much lower, while administration costs remained the same. But some children were still vaccinated on the second day, so the team’s next goal is to refine operations.”
The authors also note the onsite clinics mean less expense to the parents. When averted parent costs to visit medical practices ($35.08 per vaccine) were factored in, SLV-I costs were $19.26/dose in net costs, which is below practice-based influenza vaccination costs.
