Addressing Barriers to COVID-19 Vaccination Among Older U.S. Veterans

Efforts are being made to ensure that COVID-19 vaccination among older adults is as complete as possible. Dialogue-based interventions tailored to patients’ specific concerns have shown potential for effectiveness in promoting vaccination. We implemented a quality improvement project intended to help patients in an outpatient geriatrics clinic overcome barriers to COVID-19 vaccination. We offered tailored conversations by telephone in which we discussed the barriers to vaccination that the patients were facing and offered to provide relevant information and/or logistical assistance. Of the 184 patients reached by phone, 125 (68%) endorsed having already been vaccinated and 59 (32%) did not. About one third of the unvaccinated patients were willing to participate in tailored conversations (20 patients = 34% of the unvaccinated). In follow-up calls 30 days after the intervention we found that four of these 20 patients had received COVID-19 vaccination, one patient was scheduled for vaccination, 10 continued to be deciding about vaccination, four had decided against it and one could not be reached. Dialogue-based interventions that are conducted by telephone and are tailored to the specific barriers to vaccination being faced by older adults may have some effectiveness in encouraging vaccination against COVID-19. The effectiveness of such interventions may be decreased in populations that already have high vaccination rates and in which many patients have already formed strong opinions regarding vaccination against COVID-19. Completion of Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles is a feasible way to design, implement and work to optimize quality improvement efforts related to COVID-19 vaccination.