Study - Hospitalized adults not being vaccinated for flu

CHICAGO -- Doctors are not following guidelines recommending flu and pneumonia vaccinations for hospitalized adults, leaving millions of elderly patients vulnerable to potentially deadly ailments, a study suggests.

Of patients aged 65 and older who were not already vaccinated, more than 95 percent were not immunized against either disease during their hospital stays, the researchers found. They analyzed medical records for 107,311 Medicare patients who were hospitalized for various ailments during 1998 and 1999.

The results, appearing in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine, suggest that millions of patients nationwide are failing to get the inoculations each year, the study says.

Combined, pneumonia and flu are the fifth-leading cause of death for older Americans, killing at least 40,000 annually. Yet data suggests only about 50 percent of adults 65 and older have received the pneumococcal vaccine and only 65 percent get annual flu shots.

Flu shots are recommended for all adults aged 50 and older. Pneumococcal vaccine, recommended for adults 65 and older, is usually given once to prevent pneumonia, meningitis and bloodstream infections.

To boost vaccination rates, the government's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends both vaccines be administered to adults during hospitalizations. Hospitalized adults are a captive audience and are especially vulnerable to complications from flu or pneumonia because they're already sick, said the lead researcher, Dr. Dale W. Bratzler of the Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality.