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. 2014 Jul-Aug;54(4):415-8.
doi: 10.1331/JAPhA.2014.13094.

Impact of pharmacist integration in a pediatric primary care clinic on vaccination errors: a retrospective review

Anna Haas-Gehres, Sonya Sebastian, Kristen Lamberjack

Impact of pharmacist integration in a pediatric primary care clinic on vaccination errors: a retrospective review

Anna Haas-Gehres et al. J Am Pharm Assoc (2003). 2014 Jul-Aug.

Abstract

Objective: To measure the impact of ambulatory clinical pharmacist integration in a pediatric primary care clinic on vaccination error rates and to evaluate missed opportunities.

Methods: A retrospective, quasi-experimental review of electronic medical records of visit encounters during a 3-month period compared vaccine error rates and missed opportunities between two pediatric residency primary care clinics. The intervention clinic has a full-time ambulatory clinical pharmacist integrated into the health care team. Pharmacy services were not provided at the comparison clinic. A vaccine error was defined as follows: doses administered before minimum recommended age, doses administered before minimum recommended spacing from a previous dose, doses administered unnecessarily, live virus vaccination administered too close to a previous live vaccine, and doses invalid for combinations of these reasons.

Results: 900 encounters were randomly selected and reviewed. The error rate was found to be 0.28% in the intervention clinic and 2.7% in the comparison clinic. The difference in error rates was found to be significant (P = 0.0021). The number of encounters with greater than or equal to one missed opportunity was significantly higher in the comparison clinic compared with the intervention clinic (29.3% vs. 10.2%; P <0.0001).

Conclusion: The pediatric primary care clinic with a pharmacist had reductions in vaccination errors as well as missed opportunities. Pharmacists play a key role in the pediatric primary care team to improve the appropriate use of vaccines.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: The authors declare no conflicts of interest or financial interests in any product or service mentioned in this article, including grants, employment, gifts, stock holdings, or honoraria.

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