​Antoinette V. Barber, Director, Learning Resource Center, Public Health Foundation

The Public Health Foundation (PHF) creates and supports opportunities to achieve public health and healthcare system alignment to improve community health. PHF applauds new policies that increase system collaboration for improved health outcomes, including reducing the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases.

A new Georgia law allowing pharmacists in that state to administer vaccines for influenza, pneumococcal disease, meningitis, and shingles to adults without a physician’s prescription has already improved patient access to vaccine services. Georgia joins most states in permitting pharmacists to administer all or almost all vaccines. While Georgia pharmacists had been administering influenza vaccines since 2009, this new legislation helps to strengthen the “immunization neighborhood” - a term coined by the American Pharmacists Association and is defined as “the collaboration, coordination, and communication of immunization stakeholders who are dedicated to meeting the immunization needs of the patient and protecting the community from vaccine-preventable diseases.”

Key elements of the immunization neighborhood include:

• Improving collaboration among primary care physicians and other prescribers, public health officials, and pharmacists to make obtaining protocol agreements easier
• Increasing immunization access points
• Providing enhanced and more consistent patient education and communication
  

Although access to care is still a problem for some people in Georgia, 93% of all Georgia residents live within 5 miles of a pharmacy - significantly reducing transportation barriers. Adults in Georgia can now go to their local pharmacy to receive a vaccine for influenza, herpes zoster virus (shingles), meningitis, and pneumococcal disease. Pharmacies offer an alternative access point to vaccines and provide convenience and flexibility for patients, including longer weekday hours, weekend hours, and walk-in-services usually not offered at physician’s offices or at health departments. 

Read Ruobing Han's article in the Athens Banner-Herald (January 4, 2016 issue) for the full story.
 

Check out Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases, 13th Edition “The Pink Book” or "The Pink Book" E-Book.