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• “The big advantage of pharmacy-based immunization for consumers is the convenience.”

  Karl D. Fiebelkorn

  Associate Dean, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

By ELLEN GOLDBAUM

Published: January 16, 2009

Sixty New York State pharmacists are now eligible for certification to administer flu and pneumonia shots after completing a training session at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Certification allows pharmacists, for the first time, to provide this valuable service later this flu season in Western New York.

Pharmacists find themselves in this new role as the result of New York State legislation passed last fall that allows pharmacists in the state to administer flu and pneumonia shots to patients who are 18 years of age and older.

The UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences advocated for passage of that legislation. New York State is the 49th state to allow pharmacists to administer shots.

“The biggest reason we and so many others pushed for this is that not enough people are getting flu shots,” says Karl D. Fiebelkorn, associate dean of student affairs and professional relations and clinical associate professor, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. “More than 30,000 people in the U.S. die every year from the flu and pneumonia, and between 4,000 and 6,000 of those deaths are in New York State.”

Fiebelkorn, a director of the recent training session, adds that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control now recommend flu shots for most members of the population.

“The big advantage of pharmacy-based immunization for consumers is the convenience,” he says. “They can stop by their pharmacy and get immunized right away at any time without having to wait for a special in-store clinic or an appointment.”

Health care providers whose patients want to be vaccinated at pharmacies must furnish to pharmacies individual prescriptions or nonspecific patient orders, which give the pharmacist permission to immunize any of a prescriber’s patients.

During the training session, called “Pharmacy-Based Immunization Delivery,” pharmacists learned about vaccines, adverse reactions, vaccine storage and maintenance, record-keeping, marketing, legal and regulatory issues, emergency issues, and epidemiology and disease prevention. Pharmacists also learned vaccine administration techniques by practicing on themselves and each other.

The training session, funded by a grant from Merck & Co., was sponsored by UB and the American Pharmacists’ Association.