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Methods: Patients who elected to receive their immunization though the OIC of the Thomas J Long School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. All adult individuals who requested services were offered to participate.
Results: During 2010, 1126 patients received influenza vaccination by OIC. Mean patient age was 34 years (range 17 – 85). The majority of patients were female 654 (58.1%). There were 1121 who indicated no previous reaction to prior vaccination. Fourteen patients self identified as having an allergy to any medications, food, latex or vaccines. No incidence of allergy to any vaccine component was found but there were 7 patients with latex allergy. Three-hundred-forty-eight patients were indicated to receive pneumococcal vaccination due to presence of age of > 65 years. One-hundred-sixty-four patients completed the OIC Vaccine Survey. Cost of vaccine recommended was very or extremely important to 60 (36.5%) patients. Convenience of vaccine was very or extremely important to 106 (64.6%) patients. When asked the importance of receiving the seasonal vaccine yearly 88 (53.7%) patients stated this was very or extremely important. When asked how many times have you received a seasonal influenza vaccine in the past 5 years the mean was 2.29 (SD 1.83).
Conclusion: There were a large number of patients over the age of 65 indicated for pneumococcal vaccination. Steps were taken to ensure both influenza and pneumococcal vaccine will be available for administration by OIC for FALL of 2011. Approximately 50% patients indicate that it is important to receive the seasonal influenza vaccination annually, actual self-reported vaccination rates were lower than perceived need. Future studies would be beneficial to determine specific barriers in the population to increase vaccination rates.