I've always thought that the "achilles heel" in the guidelines for tetanus immunisation is the patient's recollection of their immunisation status. At Lancaster the computer system prints out the date when they had a tetanus booster (from A&E) on the card. The patient's memory is often not correct!
Of course with the new Electronic Patient record we will lose 14 yrs of data and not be able to do the same print out on the card. We are supposed to go live in April.
Ray McGlone
Lancaster
Unique Identifier 15765327
Authors Gindi M. Oravitz P. Sexton R. Shpak M. Eisenhart A.
Institution Department of Emergency Medicine, Saint Barnabas Hospital, Bronx, NY 10457, USA. [log in to unmask]
Title Unreliability of reported tetanus vaccination histories.
Source American Journal of Emergency Medicine. 23(2):120-2, 2005 Mar.
Abstract Our study questioned the reliability of patients' reported tetanus immunization histories. One thousand patients at an urban teaching hospital were queried regarding their tetanus immunization status. Of the 377 patients who initially asserted having had a tetanus vaccine in the last 5 years, 98 (26%) were confirmed, either by further history taking or chart review, not to have received tetanus immunization. It appears that there is a sizeable percentage of patients who falsely report their tetanus immunization status.
