Figuring out how to get more people to get an annual flu shot is a pernicious problem in the United States: Since 2010, the proportion of American adults who get a flu shot has not risen above 46%, and it hit a low for that period of 37% in 2017. The direct medical costs of the flu are in the tens of billions of dollars each year, and the societal cost runs much higher due to millions of hours of missed work and billions of dollars in lost earnings.
How to Motivate Busy Physicians to Give More Flu Shots
Money won’t do it.
November 05, 2019
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Summary.
Figuring out how to get more people to get an annual flu shot is a pernicious problem in the United States. Most interventions targeting patients’ thoughts and feelings have met with little success. But patients aren’t the only way to increase vaccination rate; providers wield significant influence over patient behavior: One study showed that 99% of patients accept the flu shot following a provider recommendation. But how do you motivate busy providers to vaccinate more of their patients? To address that question, the authors conducted a randomized controlled experiment to explore whether offering financial incentives or creating competition by informing clinics how their performance ranked relative to others had the biggest impact. To their surprise, they found that the latter was more effective.