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News Release

SUGAR CREEK STATION EARNS RECOGNITION FOR FLU VACCINATION RATE

When it comes to safeguarding patients, employees and others from the flu, Sugar Creek Station is a champion.

UPMC Northwest’s skilled nursing center ranked first among 10 UPMC long-term care facilities for vaccinating 92 percent of its work force for the 2007 flu season. Sugar Creek Station has participated in Raising Immunization Safely and Effectively (RISE) since its inception, and in one year significantly increased its vaccination rate, according to Mary Ann Suda, marketing executive and customer service liaison for Rx Partners-LTC and Community Drugs.

Sugar Creek Station’s 92 percent staff vaccination rate is more than double the national rate, which is only about 37 percent.

One factor that helped increase the number of immunizations: the incentives that Sugar Creek Station offered to employees, including gift certificates, a Chinese auction, and a drawing for a paid day off. With a chance to protect Sugar Creek Station residents, themselves and their loved ones, and to get something in return, more staff members than ever responded to the facility’s offer of free flu shots, according to infection control nurse Beverly Whitman, RN.

“We had a lot better participation than ever,” Ms. Whitman says. “Everything worked out very well.”

Increased staff immunizations and almost 100 percent vaccination of residents clearly resulted in a healthier skilled nursing center the past winter. Sugar Creek Station had no known cases of influenza among either residents or staff, and the facility never had to initiate isolation precautions like closing its dining room to limit spread of the disease, Ms. Whitman says.

“Our vaccination program was very effective protecting residents and staff,” she says.
Sugar Creek Station did an “awesome job” and exhibited “great teamwork” with its flu vaccine program the past year, and set a standard for RISE participants and other UPMC facilities to follow during the upcoming flu season, according to Ms. Suda.

Shikha Iyengar, MS, MPH, NHA, administrator of the University of Pittsburgh Institute on Aging in partnership with UPMC, also commended Sugar Creek Station for its successful vaccination program.

Flu Facts