A Shot in the Rear, Not a Shot in the Dark
The Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) guidelines for providing emergency smallpox vaccinations proved useful and practical during a hepatitis A outbreak.
In August and September 2003, tainted green onions from an eastern Tennessee restaurant led to 65 cases of hepatitis A. After tests confirmed hepatitis A in employees and patrons, two regional health departments established a single mass-site clinic. The health departments estimated that roughly 6,000 patrons had eaten at the restaurant during the spread of the outbreak. The mass clinic provided immune serum globulin (ISG), a hepatitis preventive.
This article describes the mass clinic built in response to the Tennessee hepatitis outbreak; the authors present statistics from the four days that the clinic operated; in addition, the article discusses how the Tennessee mass clinic applied CDC guidelines.
Key Findings:
- Mass clinic staff provided 1.45 ISG doses per person-hour.
- Over the clinic’s four days, the mean time from triage to injection was 9 to 6 minutes per person.
Two regional health departments in east Tennessee successfully adapted CDC guidelines for providing smallpox vaccines in emergency mass clinics. The Tennessee hepatitis A mass clinics can serve as a guide for responding to future outbreaks.
April Issue of Health Affairs Focuses on Patient Safety and Health Care Quality
- 1. The Ongoing Quality Improvement Journey
- 2. A Road Map for Improving the Performance of Performance Measures
- 3. The Trade-Off Among Quality, Quantity, and Cost
- 4. 'Global Trigger Tool' Shows that Adverse Events in Hospitals May be Ten Times Greater Than Previously Measured
- 5. Preventing Bloodstream Infections
- 6. Measuring the Performance of Individual Physicians by Collecting Data from Multiple Health Plans
- 7. Measuring Health Care Performance Now, Not Tomorrow
- 8. Despite Improved Quality of Care in the Veterans Affairs Health System, Racial Disparity Persists for Important Clinical Outcomes
- 9. The Importance of Transitional Care in Achieving Health Reform
- 10. An Early Status Report on the Beacon Communities' Plans for Transformation Via Health Information Technology
- 11. A Comparative Study of 11 Local Health Department Organizational Networks
- 12. Public Health Performance
- 13. A Self-Assessment Process for Accreditation Preparedness
- 14. Public Health Delivery Systems
- 15. A Shot in the Rear, Not a Shot in the Dark
- 16. What Predicts Local Public Health Agency Performance Improvement?
- 17. Growth of a Scientific Community of Practice
- 18. Evolution of Coauthorship in Public Health Services and Systems Research
- 19. Resources that May Matter
- 20. Evidence Links Increases in Public Health Spending to Declines in Preventable Deaths
- 21. Public Health Financial Management Competencies
- 22. Decision Science
- 23. Public Health Financial Management Needs
- 24. Data-Driven Management Strategies in Public Health Collaboratives
- 25. Using Geographic Information Systems to Match Local Health Needs with Public Health Services and Programs
- 26. Public Health Systems and Services Research
- 27. Mapping the Multidisciplinary Field of Public Health Services and Systems Research