OPTIMIZING THE IMMUNIZATION ACTIVITIES OF COMMUNITY CHAIN PHARMACISTS: INSIGHTS FROM A NATIONAL SURVEY

Abstract Objectives To assess: (1) the practices, attitudes and perceptions of immunizing chain community pharmacists regarding implementation of immunization services per the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) Standards of Adult Immunization Practice; (2) how community pharmacists view the effectiveness of corporate initiatives toward improving immunization volumes. Design Based on extensive formative research and pilot-testing, a cross-sectional survey was administered electronically to chain community pharmacists over a 4-week period. Setting and participants Respondents were chain community pharmacists engaged in year-round immunization in the U.S., randomly sampled from a list of 9,717 maintained by the American Pharmacists Association. Outcome Measures Pharmacists' reports of immunization volumes, patterns of time use, perceptions of time spent on the immunization process, attitudes toward immunization, and confidence in completing NVAC standard components. Additionally, pharmacists evaluated the utility of corporate goals, feedback and incentives received. Qualtrics survey software was employed to perform all analyzes. Results The survey yielded 590 responses, with 489 meeting eligibility criteria (5% response rate) and distributed from across the country. 84% of respondents reported giving > 26 vaccinations/week during influenza season, whereas only 6% reported as many during non-flu season. Pharmacists spent on average 29% of their day addressing the immunization process during the flu season, compared to 12% in non-flu months. Only 29% of respondents were confident that their patients' complete immunization needs were assessed at every patient encounter and only 46% were confident that their patients received strong recommendations regarding their specific immunization needs. Most pharmacists viewed corporate goals and the messages and strategies to achieve them as limited in scope and largely inadequate. Conclusion In the context of their current role expectations, most community pharmacists who responded were not confident that key NVAC standards were being implemented to improve patients' immunization rates and did not view corporate iniatives effective in that effort.