Open Bed Campaign
Program Overview
Program Objectives
The primary objective for the Open Bed Campaign is to immunize all eligible adults for the vaccine preventable diseases including pneumococcal and influenza in order to help reduce the demand on local health systems, co-infection and ultimately improve patient health outcomes during the current COVID-19 resurgence.
Overview
The vaxPACES Open Bed Campaign utilizes a simple, learner friendly, data-driven quality improvement instructional design and format with a proven track record for success. The initiative will link full numerator and denominator claims data to a fully integrated learning management system supported by educational interventions developed by national experts in infectious disease and vaccines. Individualized Clinical Performance Dashboards for each participant will display the percentage (number received / number eligible) of patients who received the recommended pneumococcal or influenza vaccines.
The NCQA and the Immunization Action Coalition have developed a suite of Continuing Medical Education and other evidence-based vaccination resources to support professional development, certification requirements and population health improvement. The Clinical Performance Dashboard and educational resources are available to all participants following registration with no cost.
Preliminary data indicate that approximately half of the deaths with COVID-19 listed as a cause of death also include pneumonia as a cause of death.
More than 150 million Americans meet the Center’s for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for the development of more serious complications, severe illness, hospitalization and death following infection by COVID-19. These criteria include people over the age of 60 and all age groups with common co-morbid conditions including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity (1). These same criteria that place populations at risk for severe illness from COVID-19 infection are shared with those for the same populations at risk for pneumococcal disease and influenza infection (2,3).
The impact of COVID-19 co-infection with pneumococcal and influenza on hospitalizations and mortality is under surveillance. Current evidence suggests that co-infection with pneumonia and influenza is common and results in a higher outcome for severe illness and mortality. The National Center for Health Statistics mortality surveillance data indicate 8.2% of the deaths that occurred during the week of March 21, 2020 were due to pneumonia and influenza and above the epidemic threshold of 7.2% for the same week. Historical data suggest that the increase is driven primarily by an increase in pneumonia deaths (excluding deaths where influenza is also listed as a cause of death) recognizing influenza is less common during this time period (4).
Target Audience
This activity has been designed to meet the needs of primary care specialists and their inter-professional healthcare team members who see patients at-risk for sars-cov-2 co-infection with pneumococcal and influenza.