Pharmacists as Immunizers to Improve Coverage and Provider/Recipient Satisfaction: A Prospective, Controlled Community Embedded Study With Vaccines With Low Coverage Rates (The Improve ACCESS Study)

Although there are many safe and effective vaccines for adults, the Public Health Agency of Canada has noted that public perception of vaccination is that it is primarily for infants and children. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommends adults and adolescents receive the influenza vaccine, tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis vaccine (Tdap), and meningococcal vaccines (MenACWY, 4CMenB). As well, NACI recommends that people 60 years or older receive the herpes zoster vaccine and that Canadians who travel to high-risk areas should consider getting vaccinated to protect themselves against travel-related illnesses, such as Hepatitis A and Typhoid Fever. While NACI makes recommendations, provinces and territories (P/Ts) determine if they will fund and implement vaccine programs. Unlike the childhood immunization programs which tend to be funded by P/Ts, many adult vaccines are unfunded, resulting in poor population uptake. In this project,the investigators propose to implement and compare new community pharmacy-based strategies for improving vaccine coverage.

Patients are typically educated about preventative health care during face-to-face visits with physicians in office settings. The ability to educate and deliver preventative health care is limited by the available provider time during office visits - providers often focus on acute needs and current disease management. New delivery models and a means of extending preventative health care delivery outside of traditional face-to-face office visits are needed.

Pharmacists are in a unique position of being among the most accessible of health professionals. Given their extended operating hours, accessibility, and established trust with patients, pharmacists are well-positioned to improve vaccination rates and health system efficacy through injection administration.

Vaccine coverage rates will be measured using the following:

1. pharmacy database analysis,
2. public health vaccine reports by physicians,
3. number of vaccine doses delivered to pharmacies in all four regions, and
4. public survey within the study communities to determine immunization status.