ABSTRACT
Background and Aims: The coronavirus pandemic challenged countries worldwide in a race against contaminations and variants. Vaccination campaigns were the answer to such an infectious spread. This descriptive study presents the organizational process of the setting up of a Covid-19 vaccination center in a French University Hospital in January 2021, the issues encountered along the way and assessment of adaptability.
ABSTRACT
Background and importanceThe COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all countries in a race against infection and the emergence of variants. Vaccination campaigns were the answer to this public health crisis.In our university hospital, a multidisciplinary team was mobilised for the opening of two vaccination centres (VCs): for health professionals and for patients with high risk of severe COVID-19 illness according to national health authority guidelines.Aim and objectivesThe aims of our study were to collect patient and nurse satisfaction regarding these VCs and to identify adverse events (AEs) related to vial manipulation.Material and methodsThis prospective study was conducted from April to May 2021. Two satisfaction questionnaires for patients and nurses were created, each containing 13 questions subdivided into four items. Patient items were: organisation of vaccination, care, service and quality of care. Nurse items were: VC organisation, handling of vials and syringes and interprofessionalism. Responses were rated from ‘poor’ to ‘very good’.ResultsOver 1 month, 51 patient questionnaires and 4 nurse questionnaires were collected.Regarding patient satisfaction, 82% of respondents expressed ‘very good’ satisfaction with their medical care. VC location and the convenience of the vaccination boxes received 61% and 65% of ‘very good’ ratings. Some patients mentioned low confidentiality measures.The nurses’ general satisfaction was 100% ‘very good’, as well as the cooperation with the pharmacy department. As for the information technology (IT) service, 50% answered ‘rather bad’. The impact of the media on their activity was perceived as ‘bad’ for half of them and ‘average’ for the other half.Nurses reported four AEs: broken vial, leakage during dilution, mishandling by some vaccinators, and defective vial.Conclusion and relevancePatients were generally satisfied with the care received and the nurses reported a positive general satisfaction of their experience at the VC. The IT poor appreciation can be explained by network difficulties affecting data collection and certificate edition. The presence of a referring vaccination pharmacist at the VC was associated with positive feedback, which testifies to the the efficiency of the pharmacist–nurse relationship. The AEs reported allowed the good manipulation pamphlets to be updated. For the continuation of COVID-19 vaccination campaigns with booster shots, these data will allow improvement of the installation of future VC.References and/or acknowledgementsConflict of interestNo conflict of interest