Mayo Breaks Record for Flu Vaccinations With Mass Dispensing Exercise

Friday, October 24, 2008

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic's mass dispensing flu clinic program broke its own record for single-day influenza (flu) vaccinations administered. Mayo vaccinated 7,401 employees for flu on Tuesday, Oct. 21, more than doubling the Guinness Book of World Records record of 3,271.

"This is not about breaking records," says Priya Sampathkumar, M.D. "We hope this record is broken many times over by medical centers across the country. The message we want to send is for people to get vaccinated, especially children, at-risk adults, and health care workers. Mayo's philosophy is that when our employees are vaccinated, they are not only protecting themselves, but they are also protecting their families and our patients."

The program not only vaccinated Mayo employees, but also served as a test exercise of Mayo's emergency preparedness. During the exercise, Mayo also administered an additional 1,650 TDaP vaccines, which prevents tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (whooping cough). "In evaluating our emergency readiness, based on this exercise, we feel confident that we are able to respond quickly and efficiently in the event of an actual pandemic or bioterrorism event," says Jonathan Curtright, incident commander for the emergency-preparedness exercise.

In addition to Mayo's effort to vaccinate employees, special vaccine clinics have begun at the Northeast Clinic and the Kasson Clinic, for community members. These vaccinations are available by appointment. Patients should call their primary care provider to make the appointment, and should have their Mayo Clinic number available. Adults and children can be seen at these clinics, which are a convenient way for the entire family to get vaccinated. In addition to flu shots, patients will have the opportunity to get caught up on other vaccines, such as TDaP.

To ease access for non-employee patients, Mayo encourages employees to get flu shots at other Employee Clinics scheduled over the next few weeks.

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About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of "the needs of the patient come first." More than 3,700 physicians, scientists and researchers and 50,100 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minn; Jacksonville, Fla; and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. and community based providers in more than 70 locations in Southern Minn., Western Wis. and Northeast Iowa. These locations treat more than half a million people each year. To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to www.mayoclinic.org/news. For information about research and education, visit www.mayo.edu. MayoClinic.com is available as a resource for your health stories.