Office of Public Relations — Newsroom
News Release
For Immediate Release
Contacts: Tonya Ewers, UCDHSC, (303) 724-1520, Tonya.Ewers@uchsc.edu
University of Colorado Hospital Sending a Friendly Reminder to High-Risk Patients
Automated phone message recommends annual flu shot to lower the risk of medical complications
AURORA, Colo. (Oct. 22, 2007) - Primary care and family medicine practices of the University of Colorado Hospital are using an automated system this month to deliver a pre-recorded phone message to thousands of their patients as a reminder to get the annual influenza vaccination, or the 'flu shot.' The mass calling approach is intended to remind mainly those patients considered at high risk for the flu who could develop severe health complications if they contract the illness.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the flu is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses that can cause mild to severe illness, and at times can lead to death. The CDC recommends the flu vaccination each year for anyone looking to prevent catching the influenza viruses.
Last fall, the hospital tested the automated calling system and contacted approximately 1,800 households with high-risk patients from the hospital's A.F. Williams Clinic in Denver. The test run resulted in an 87 percent success rate in reaching the 1,800 households. This year, the A.F. Williams Clinic is adding all its patients to the contact list to receive the important reminder call.
In addition, all of the hospital's primary care/family medicine clinics in Stapleton, Park Meadows, Boulder and Westminster, as well as the general internal medicine clinics in Denver and on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colo., have identified and elected to call all high-risk patients at each of the clinics via the automated system. The automated flu shot-reminder system will contact more than 17,000 patient households in the next few weeks with the important reminder from their primary care clinics to get the flu shot. Patients who are contacted and don't find the reminders helpful can opt out of the automated phone call message in the future. .
"There is a common misperception that the flu is similar to most other common viral illnesses and as a result, a lot of people choose not to get an annual influenza vaccination," said Wilson Pace, MD, professor of family medicine at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center's School of Medicine. "An annual flu shot is an important preventive measure to those that are at high risk of developing complications from influenza. We think it is important for an individual's primary care physician to remind them to get flu shots and it is our hope that most of the people we contact will elect to get the vaccine.
The CDC's Web site states that every year in the United States, on average, 5 percent to 20 percent of the population gets the flu, more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu complications, and approximately 36,000 people die from flu.
Patients who fall within a high-risk category for influenza include those who are under 23 months or over 65 years of age, pregnant, a transplant recipient, or have any of the following diagnoses: HIV positive, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), asthma or diabetes.
The automated calls from the University of Colorado Hospital's clinics encourage those at high risk to get a flu shot at either the clinic or from another provider. In anticipation of patient need, each of the clinics will be holding special flu shot clinic days in addition to flu shots that are administered during patients' regularly scheduled appointments.
The University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center is one of three universities in the University of Colorado system. Located in Denver, on the Auraria Campus, at Ninth & Colorado Blvd. and on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colo., UCDHSC is Colorado's premier research university offering more than 100 degrees and programs in 12 schools and colleges and serving more than 28,000 students in Metro Denver and online. For more information, visit the web site at www.ucdhsc.edu or the UCDHSC Newsroom at http://www.uchsc.edu/news.
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