Examining Routine Pediatric Vaccination Availability in Community Pharmacies in Washington State

Abstract

To address diminishing pediatric vaccination rates resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act allows pharmacists, technicians, and pharmacy interns to administer any vaccine that the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) guidelines recommend for all patients aged 3 years and older. A survey was conducted to evaluate the role of pharmacy personnel in the community setting providing immunizations for the pediatric patients. Sixty-seven pharmacies were contacted in a state where pharmacists are allowed to administer vaccinations to any patient over the age of six months. Of the 58 respondent pharmacies offering vaccinations for pediatric patients, the most commonly reported vaccines included influenza (97%), tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (88%), hepatitis (71%), human papillomavirus (69%), meningococcal vaccines (66%), polio (45%), and Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine (40%). Nearly all respondent pharmacies (56/58) reported having at least one of the ACIP-recommended routine childhood vaccinations available for patients under the age of 18. Community pharmacies are well-positioned to administer routine vaccinations to pediatric patients and address declining pediatric vaccination rates.

Factors Associated with the Implementation of Pediatric Immunization Services: A Survey of Community Pharmacies

“…Conversely, influenza and COVID-19 vaccines are the most commonly offered pediatric vaccines in community pharmacy settings. These findings are consistent with a recent Washington-based study, where pharmacists are permitted to give immunizations to children ≥ 6 months, which also noted influenza vaccines as the most frequently offered while identifying inactivated poliovirus and Hib vaccines as among the less frequently provided [26]. Future studies should continue to assess community pharmacy involvement in pediatric immunization services after the end of the PREP Act and compare pharmacy involvement among states with varying levels of permissiveness of state laws concerning pharmacist authority to vaccinate children.…”

“…Prevailing sentiments throughout the literature examining pediatric immunization service provision in the pharmacy setting describe common difficulties and barriers in service implementation such as physician perceptions [ 13 , 16 , 35 ], parental attitudes [ 16 , 34 ], pharmacy space [ 32 , 36 ], workflow [ 16 ], hurdles due to corporate [ 26 , 36 ], insurance [ 26 ], legislative policy [ 13 , 26 ], and patient documentation accessibility [ 13 , 36 , 37 ]. Strikingly, the EFA of our internally validated PI-B measure assessing pharmacists’ perceived barriers in pediatric immunization delivery inherently collated these individual items in its implementation logistics component.…”