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TUCSON - Patients and anyone else visiting a Carondelet Health Network hospital or facility can be assured their caregiver has received a flu shot this year.

A universal flu vaccination effort began this month for Carondelet's 4,400 associates and 1,100 physician partners.

More than 9,800 confirmed cases of influenza were reported to the Arizona Department of Health Services during the 2010-2011 flu season and nearly 4,000 in the 2011-2012 season. Carondelet Health Network is doing its part to reduce those statistics by requiring all clinical and non-clinical associates, active medical personnel, volunteers and hospital-based vendors to get a flu shot.

"Carondelet believes that immunization, at its core, is a patient safety issue," said Donald Denmark, M.D., Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Carondelet St. Joseph's Hospital and Carondelet Health Network. "We believe that anyone who enters our doors-patients, their families, or our staff-should be safe and confident in the knowledge that they are entering an environment that is as healthy as it can be."

Carondelet Health Network is the first health care system in Southern Arizona to comply with universal vaccination guidelines, which have been endorsed by the American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, American Academy of Family Physicians and American Academy of Pediatrics.