Caring for Frail Patients Through Vaccination

The CareVax project aims to find frail patients at Fondazione Policlinico Universitario 'A. Gemelli' IRCCS who could benefit from vaccinations against pneumococcal, Zoster, flu, HBV and SARS-CoV-2. This will reduce hospital stays, long-term effects, and deaths related to these diseases, as outlined in the PNPV (National Plan for Vaccine Prevention) 2017-2019 and Ministry of Health circulars from September, October, December 2022, and January 2023. Eligible patients, upon consent, will be identified by applying an automated algorithm to the patient's electronic health record and vaccination history contained in the regional vaccination registry. Identified patients will be contacted either directly if they are admitted to the inpatient wards of the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario "A.Gemelli" IRCCS (FPG) Hospital, or by messaging or e-mail in the case of access to the FPG for follow-up or routine visits or day hospital or day surgery service. Patients contacted, depending on their frail condition, will be booked for vaccination at an hospital vaccine clinic (extremely vulnerable patients) or a Local Health Unit (ASL Roma1) vaccine clinic respectively (frail patients).

The project envisages a validation phase of the algorithm, through the evaluation of its concordance with the judgement of a blinded clinician on a small group of patients Patients' engagement and a proper communication system with them will be carried through an interoperable digital system aimed at booking the new vaccination appointment, reminding it and providing patients with all the information needed.