Study: Drive-thru flu clinics safe
The U of L team reviewed medical and legal literature and made statistical inferences about the likelihood of fainting following drive-thru immunizations.
Critics have pointed to fainting risks and subsequent auto accidents as reasons for concern when using drive-thru influenza immunization clinics, according to Ruth Carrico, Ph.D., RN, FSHEA, CIC, associate professor in the University of Louisville Division of Infectious Diseases.
A review conducted by Carrico and U of L faculty W. Paul McKinney, M.D., FACP, Timothy Wiemken, Ph.D., MPH, CIC, and John Myers, Ph.D., MSPH, found these fears to be unfounded.
Since the beginning of an annual drive-thru immunization program initiated 1995 at the University of Louisville Hospital, more than 50,000 doses of the influenza vaccine have been administered, with no reports of fainting episodes or related auto accidents.
The study, Drive-thru influenza immunization: Fifteen years of experience published recently in the Journal of Emergency Management.
