Flu Shot Pre-visit Questionnaire

Geisinger Clinic230,962 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of this study is to assess, prospectively, the effect on flu vaccination rates of a pre-visit questionnaire that asks patients to indicate their preferences for a flu shot. Responses to the questionnaire will also be shown to clinicians via additional text in an existing flu shot alert. The investigators hypothesize that the pre-visit questionnaire will lead to increased flu vaccination compared with standard practices.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommends a flu vaccination to everyone aged 6+ months, with rare exception; almost anyone can benefit from the vaccine, which can reduce illnesses, missed work, hospitalizations, and death. One barrier to vaccination is a lack of "cues to action," which could be overcome by asking patients for a pre-visit commitment to get a flu shot and additional reminders for the clinician to act on this commitment. Eligible patients will be randomized to either receive or not receive a one-item, pre-visit questionnaire about the flu shot (that will show responses to clinicians in an existing flu shot alert).

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

230,962

Conditions

Influenza

Interventions

Precommitment NudgeBEHAVIORAL

Ask participants to commit to a decision about getting a flu shot

SalienceBEHAVIORAL

Additional text and icon in the flu shot alert makes the pre-visit questionnaire response salient to the clinician, which could facilitate action or further discussion with the patient

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Patient Inclusion Criteria: * On a list of active Geisinger patients (all patients on this list attended at least one primary care appointment at Geisinger between 10/1/2008 and 4/13/2022, and either had a Geisinger primary care provider assigned as of April 2022, or were in the Electronic Health Record \[EHR\] since at least September 2021 and had at least one encounter in 2020-2022) * Has an upcoming flu shot-eligible outpatient visit with a provider * Has activated Geisinger's patient portal * Has not yet received a flu vaccine at the time the questionnaire became available, according to the EHR Clinician Inclusion Criteria * Any Geisinger clinician who sees patient-participants in our study for a flu shot-eligible outpatient visit

Locations (1)

Geisinger Clinic

Danville, Pennsylvania, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Count of patients with a flu vaccination

Patient received a flu vaccine (yes/no) between the day questionnaires became available for the patient's first scheduled flu-shot-eligible appointment and 7 days following the appointment. Questionnaires were available 14 days prior to the appointment date for appointments scheduled at least 14 days in advance. Questionnaires were available on the day the appointment was scheduled for appointments scheduled less than 14 days in advance. Note that control patients did not receive a flu shot questionnaire, but they may have received other questionnaires from the health system 14 days before their appointment. We will conduct subgroup analyses for people who had responded to MyGeisinger pre-visit messages in the previous year and those who did not.

Time frame: Up to 21 days

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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