State releases list of Minnesota hospitals, nursing homes with high flu vaccine rates

The Minnesota Department of Health has released a list recognizing health care institutions that carry high flu vaccination rates among workers.

The FluSafe list includes hospitals and nursing homes across Minnesota.

In the Twin Cities, Hennepin County's Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota and Hennepin Healthcare made the list. In Ramsey County, Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota and Regions Hospital both made the cut.

For the status, the health care center or nursing home must have 90 percent or higher vaccination rates among workers. The included hospitals also explained the efforts they took to make it easier for employees to get vaccinated.

"A high vaccination rate among health care personnel not only helps keep employees and their families healthy," the health department explains, "but it also reduces the chances of passing flu to patients."

For some patients, it can be a matter of life and death -- even patients who are generally healthy.

"It's part of the promise we make as health care providers to ‘first, do no harm,'" said Kris Ehresmann of the Minnesota Department of Health.

Nationwide, the flu vaccination rate among health care workers is 78 percent, the MDH says. For the full list of FlueSafe facilities, you can click here.

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