Pharmacists as immunizers, their pharmacies and immunization services: A survey of Ontario community pharmacists

Background: To improve patient access to the influenza vaccine in Ontario, pharmacists have been authorized to administer the vaccine since 2012. A survey was conducted to describe pharmacist immunizers, their pharmacies and immunization services. Methods: Ontario community pharmacists completed an anonymous online survey regarding influenza immunization. Descriptive, comparative and multivariate statistics were used to analyze data on pharmacists' personal demographics, current workplace characteristics, immunization certification status and past and anticipated experience vaccinating. Results: Of the 4307 community pharmacists contacted, 18.4% (n = 780) completed the survey. Most (81.3%, n = 603) were certified to administer vaccines, with those practising in urban pharmacies twice as likely to be certified compared to pharmacists practising in rural pharmacies (odds ratio = 2.04; 95% confidence interval, 1.04 to 4.01, p = 0.04). In the past influenza season, 70% of pharmacists had administered over 50 vaccines and 37% worked at pharmacies that had administered more than 300 vaccines. Respondent-provided profiles of immunization services described partnerships with public health, a variety of approaches for in-pharmacy and external advertising and patient vaccine access mainly through walk-in. Discussion: Ontario community pharmacists demonstrate strong engagement with this expanded scope and there is further capacity for immunization service provision through engaging rural pharmacies, addition of other vaccines and leveraging the positive relationship with public health. Patients and the public benefit from easy access to the service and the additional in-store and external promotion of influenza vaccination that is provided by pharmacists and pharmacies. Conclusion: These provincial benchmarking data provide direction for maintaining and expanding community pharmacist-provided influenza immunization.