Improving pneumococcal immunization rates in an ambulatory setting.

The purpose of this quality improvement project was to improve the immunization rates of an at-risk adult population seen in a presurgical testing center through staff training and patient education. Over 24 months, there were 2257 patients preintervention and 2505 patients postintervention. There was a statistically significant difference between preintervention rate of 24% and postintervention rate of 47% (χ2 [1, N = 4736] = 173.8; P < .0001). Appropriate immunization of patients in ambulatory settings can have an important health impact.