At a glance
Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medical Association (Paltmed) worked to enhance vaccination coverage in long-term care settings and assisted living facilities through their Moving Needles Project.
Success Story
Paltmed’s Moving Needles project launched in fall 2021 to increase routine vaccination coverage among staff and residents in long-term care chains and assisted living facilities. The project includes quality improvement interventions and systems-level improvements.
In the first round of the pilot project spanning nine sites, staff HepB vaccination coverage increased from 19% in June 2022 to 27% in April 2023, with two sites reporting 25% and 33% increases. Preliminary data from the second round, conducted between June 2023 and January 2024, showed an increase from 7% to 80% in three of the 12 sites.
The project also helped to increase COVID-19 vaccination coverage. After the bivalent COVID-19 booster was introduced in September 2022, all nine facilities exceeded the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) vaccination coverage for residents. Three sites exceeded the NHSN coverage for staff. In round 2 across nine different facilities from July 2023 to May 2024, five sites exceeded the NHSN COVID-19 vaccination coverage for residents and three sites exceeded the national average for staff. Notably, the sites that exceeded the national average for staff all offered the vaccine on site at no cost.
The project's success is driven by a few key strategies, including:
- providing tailored training based on staff roles,
- fostering a culture of vaccination through community-building activities, and
- implementing effective standard operating procedures for vaccinating staff and residents.
Additionally, improved record-keeping and coordination, as well as integrating immunization data into electronic health records and state Immunization Information Systems, played a critical role in tracking and verifying vaccination coverage.
The Moving Needles project aims for sustained improvements in vaccination coverage and overall health outcomes, providing valuable insights into effective strategies for long-term care settings.