Final Submission: Policy Memorandum

Factual Overview: Immunization

Luz Rodriguez

Southern New Hampshire University

Factual Overview: Immunization

Importance of Immunization to the Healthcare Organization

According to Pope (2019), a huge proportion of the existing health professionals and healthcare institutions recommend immunization. He notes that immunization aids in the protection of a person and those around him/her from infectious diseases. He adds that an immunization program is only successful if every individual cooperates in its participation. Largeron et al. (2015) state that for healthcare organizations, immunization is crucial in ensuring there are substantial savings in healthcare-related costs. This is because immunization prevents certain diseases in individuals and leads to fewer medical visits, hospitalizations, treatments, and diagnostic tests.

Additionally, Largeron et al. (2015) note that vaccines prevent nosocomial infections, which lowers resource utilization because such a condition often increases the hospital stay of a patient by up to 12 days. Overall, the financial impact of immunization in the State of Evergreen is important for the primary care association. However, this primary care association notes that the purchase and supply of vaccines is quite expensive for the organization. Therefore, any relevant legislation change must consider creating an avenue where additional funds are sourced to cater to the immunization program. This will be highly beneficial for the healthcare organization, which can then focus its resources on other crucial healthcare needs.

Key Organizational Stakeholders Involved

The primary stakeholders involved in this issue include healthcare workers and public-school children. They are the ones who will be directly impacted by a change in the current legislation. One of the legislations might add more freedoms against having immunization while the other might reduce these freedoms. Second, there is the Evergreen Legislature, which is responsible for the formulation and passing of any new legislation. The counties of Cedar and Fir oppose the proposed legislation while Pine County is showing significant support. Third, there are nurses, who feel schools do not have adequate funds to enforce the new legislation. Fourth, there are religious leaders who may feel that the new legislation is infringing on the right to worship. Finally, there is the business community, which supports the proposed legislation since there is a general consensus that the outbreaks are affecting tourism and the overall economic landscape of the State of Evergreen.

How Stakeholders Played a Role in Shaping the Health Law and Policy

These stakeholders play a huge role in shaping the relevant legislation surrounding immunization. These stakeholders are divided into three. First, there are those who support the proposed legislation. This legislation calls for the repealing of the clause that allows public school children to be exempted from immunization on religious grounds. Their motivation is to lower the outbreaks of infectious diseases, which can be prevented through immunizations. Also, they feel that the outbreaks are adversely affecting tourism and making the economy of the State of Evergreen weaker.

Second, there are those who oppose the proposed legislation. Instead, these stakeholders want to ensure that people can refuse to be immunized on the reason of ‘personal objection.’ This group wants to increase the right of citizens to choose if they want to be immunized or not. The third group of stakeholders does not openly support or reject the two-contrasting legislation. This group is made up of healthcare organizations and practitioners. This group is instead worried about the inability to get adequate funds to support and sustain a comprehensive immunization program.

Potential Legal Risks and Malpractice Issues that Apply

Potential legal risk is that if the proposed legislation passes, it might infringe people's right to religion. For instance, if a person's religion does not allow immunization for its members, forcing his/her child to be immunized might push him/her to sue the state for infringing on his/her child's right to religion. Also, there is a risk of malpractice when carrying out immunization. If the first legislation is passed, there will be a higher number of individuals to immunize. If this number is significantly high, healthcare workers may be overwhelmed and prone to mistakes and malpractice.

Potential Value Conflicts among Key Stakeholders

There are two potential conflicts. First, there is the right to religion. If the proposed legislation is passed, then it causes conflict among the stakeholders since it will infringe the right to religion among some of them. Second, there is the right to life. If the alternative legislation is passed, then it will cause conflict among the stakeholders since it will infringe the right to life of others by placing them at an increased risk of getting infectious diseases.

References

Largeron, N., Lévy, P., Wasem, J., & Bresse, X. (2015). Role of vaccination in the sustainability of healthcare systems. Journal of Market Access & Health Policy, 3(1), 27043.

Pope, J. (2019). Importance of immunizations. Retrieved from https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/health-topics/hw255342