Many parents unaware of policies for unvaccinated children in their child’s primary care office
MONDAY, Aug. 19, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Three in 10 parents say that their child’s primary care office should ask parents who refuse all vaccines to find another health care provider, according to an Aug. 19 Mott Poll Report.
The authors of the poll asked a national sample of 2,032 parents of children 0 to 18 years old about how primary care offices should handle children whose parents refuse all vaccines. The poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs in February on behalf of C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
According to the survey results, four in 10 parents say their child’s primary care office has a policy requiring that children get all recommended vaccines. Nearly three in 10 parents say their child’s primary care office should ask parents who refuse all vaccines to find another health care provider, but roughly the same number of parents say the primary care office should allow the unvaccinated child to continue getting care with no restrictions. Just under half of parents (43 percent) say they would want to know if there are children in the practice whose parents have refused all vaccines. A substantial number of parents are unsure of their provider’s vaccination policies (38 percent), including whether unvaccinated children are allowed to be in the waiting room (68 percent).
“Primary care providers need to think carefully about whether to institute policies to prevent their patients from being exposed to vaccine-preventable diseases, and then communicate those policies to all patients in their practice,” write the authors of the report.
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