ASHP InterSections Winter 2010 - 13

“This virus has been a huge burden to our emergency room, and there have been a number of areas where our pharmacists have been asked to step up.” Pharmacists as Vaccinators An area where pharmacists’ skills have proved invaluable during the outbreak is in their role in dispensing and administering vaccines and antivirals like Tamiflu®. Draper Eppert noted that one of the challenges her team of pharmacists face is making tough decisions regarding the potential rationing of drugs like Tamiflu during an inventory shortfall. “We even have healthy patients who want a prescription just in case they get sick,” she said. “We have to make tough decisions about whether someone else needs it more.” With the campaign for immunization under way, pharmacists from around the country have stepped up to administer vaccines. “ASHP has actively been encouraging hospitals and health systems to consider using pharmacists to administer vaccines in order to increase vaccination rates,” said ASHP president Lynnae Mahaney, M.B.A., FASHP. Even pharmacy students have gotten involved. In Texas, students at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy who completed an immunization course administered more than 2,500 vaccines in a partnership with the Harris County health department. “The students and faculty preceptors have been excited to get involved and to use their skills for something as important as preventing the further spread of a pandemic influenza virus,” said Kevin Garey,Pharm.D., M.S., initiator of the program and chair of the department of clinical sciences and administration at the university. Pharmacists and Emergency Preparedness Emergency preparedness has become a priority for hospitals and health systems in the wake of September 11, and pharmacists continue to play a critical role in such planning. The outbreak of H1N1 and other potential pandemics require planning in terms of vaccine and antiviral stocking and the skills necessary to monitor mass dispensations of those medications. Pharmacists have begun to play an even greater role in assisting public health departments in their planning efforts, according to Andy Stergachis, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and global health and adjunct professor of pharmacy at the University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle. “Public health departments can’t do this alone for two reasons,” said Stergachis, who is also the pharmacy adviser to the public health department of Seattle and King County. “First, health departments have been losing personnel due to the recession. Second, health departments have never had the capability to conduct mass dispensations. This means that public-private partnerships offering pharmacists’ expertise in medicines and distribution are critical to meet community needs.” Since 1979, the state of Washington has recognized pharmacists’ capabilities to prescribe and administer medications. That year, it created a collaborative drug therapy agreement providing pharmacists with prescriptive authority. This has allowed pharmacists to play a major role in administering vaccines and to establish relationships with public health departments. “Pharmacists were brought into the planning process early on and have been able to rapidly assume responsibility for providing oral antivirals and vaccine during the pandemic,” said Tim Fuller, M.S., FASHP, pharmacist consultant to the Washington State Department of Health Board of Pharmacy, which helps manage the state’s stockpile of vaccines and antivirals. feature WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT MANAGING IN A PANDEMIC? ASHP has several online resources to help pharmacists educate patients and colleagues about the safety and efficacy of vaccination: • A new website, Stop the Flu—It Starts With You!, at www.youcanstoptheflu. com, is designed to assist pharmacists who are leading efforts to improve seasonal influenza immunization rates among health care workers. • ASHP’s new H1N1 Flu Resource Center, at www.ashp.org/h1n1, offers a wealth of information on the supply of vaccines and antiviral medications and where pharmacists can access supplies in their own states. Above left and above, pharmacy students at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy administered more than 2,500 flu vaccines this fall. pages 12+13 INTERSECTIONS winter 2010

ASHP InterSections Winter 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHP InterSections Winter 2010