Impact of an immunization platform in community pharmacies

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the impact of incorporating a bidirectional immunization forecasting and reporting platform in the workflow of a regional community pharmacy chain with the use of time and motion methodologies.

Setting: Six Bartell Drugs Pharmacies in Seattle, Washington.

Practice description: Bartell Drugs is a 63-store family-owned regional community pharmacy chain that offers all routine vaccinations and travel vaccinations.

Practice innovation: Six pharmacies were selected based on immunization performance the previous year. These pharmacies were divided into 3 immunization performance groups. Within each performance group, one store had implemented the bidirectional immunization forecasting and reporting platform (intervention) and the other had not (control).

Evaluation: Observations were conducted for 4 to 8 hours at each store to determine the time required for each immunization encounter. Each encounter was divided into 7 time subcategories, which were assigned to the pharmacist, technician, or patient. Time and motion methodologies were used to estimate total pharmacist and technician time and the number of immunizations administered per patient encounter. All data were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics.

Results: Ten vaccinations were administered during 5 patient encounters in the intervention group compared with 8 vaccinations during 8 patient encounters in the control group. The average time spent on each patient encounter in the intervention group was 24.8 minutes, compared with 18.5 minutes in the control group. In the intervention group, pharmacists spent an average of 9.3 minutes per patient encounter compared with 7.6 minutes in the control group. In the intervention group, technicians spent an average of 10.8 minutes per encounter compared with 9.1 minutes in the control group.

Conclusion: Incorporation of a bidirectional immunization platform into the workflow of a community pharmacy increased staff time but also resulted in a greater number of immunizations per patient, suggesting enhanced immunization care in the intervention pharmacies.