Immunization
In collaboration with prescribers and local public health departments, pharmacists should protect their patients' health by being vaccine advocates through education, facilitation, and administration of immunizations. As a public health effort, the goal of provision of immunizations is to reduce and ultimately eliminate the incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases.
Over the years, IPA has helped to advocate for the role of pharmacists in providing immunizations in their practice settings. As authority to administer immunizations expanded, IPA successfully advanced legislation in 2018 to allow pharmacists to administer immunizations under a statewide protocol. Following passage of the new law, the Iowa Board of Pharmacy and Department of Public Health adopted rules and a standing order to authorize pharmacists to order and administer the following immunizations:
- To patients ages six months and older:
- An immunization for influenza, and
- Other immunizations in response to a public health emergency;
- To patients ages eleven years and older:
- The final dose(s) in a course of vaccinations for human papillomavirus (HPV);
- To patients ages eighteen and older:
- An immunization or vaccination recommended by the United States centers for disease control and prevention advisory committee on immunization practices in its approved vaccination schedule, and
- An immunization or vaccination recommended by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for international travel.
Get Ready:
(Background information to understand Iowa’s immunization rules and statewide standing order)- Board of Pharmacy Rules
- Statewide Protocol (updated 7/14/2021)
- 2/2/2 Webinar: Equipping Pharmacists for Difficult Immunization Questions
- BOP Podcast Episode #18
- IDPH Policy on Yellow Fever
Get Set:
(Training pharmacy staff; NPI obtainment; professional liability coverage)- Obtain your NPI as a pharmacist
- Verify your professional liability covers participation in these services
- Request your immunization certificate from APhA
- CEImpact pharmacist immunization-related trainings
- Immunization Administration Training for Pharmacists (with Virtual Assessment) (19.5 hrs.)
- 2020 Immunization Update for Pharmacists (2 hrs.)
- Protect Your Patient's Health: How the Entire Pharmacy Team Becomes Vaccine Advocates (1 hr.)
- Reduce the Anxiety: Best Practice for Pediatric Immunizations (1 hr.)
- Vaccine Update: Zoster vaccine - worth the wait? and Pearls for Influenza Season (30 min.)
- Disrupting the Vaccine Industry: The Scoop on the Recombinant Zoster Vaccine (1.5 hrs.)
- Tdap Vaccination: Time to give it a "Boost"? (1.5 hrs.)
- CEImpact technician immunization-related trainings
- Documentation systems
- Iowa's Immunization Registry Information System (IRIS) provides computerized tracking of immunizations for children, adolescents and adults who are seen in a variety of public and private health care provider sites throughout the state.
- If your patient should experience an adverse event following immunization, report this experience to any appropriate primary-care providers and to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
- Get your pharmacy added on the national Vaccine Finder website. Registration can be found at the bottom of the homepage. You must update your information every 14 days or you will be removed from this site.
GO!
(Operationalize the immunization service in your pharmacy)- Payment Determination Grid – Statewide Protocol (member login required)
- Instructional Video – CDC Comfort & Restraint Technique, and Flyer: Provides helpful points if/when administering vaccines to infants and adolescents.
Other Additional Resources:
- Iowa Department of Public Health: Bureau of Immunization & TB
- Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)
- APhA: Immunization Center
