Strategies used to meet the challenges of mass COVID-19 vaccination by the pharmacy department in a large academic medical center

Abstract

Purpose Highly effective coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines have brought hope for ending the pandemic. Unprecedented mass vaccination started first among healthcare workers. The aim of this report is to describe key strategies undertaken by a large hospital pharmacy department to meet the challenges of preparing a large quantity of COVID-19 vaccine doses in a short period of time. Summary MedStar Washington Hospital Center (MWHC) was in the first group of hospitals in Washington, DC, to receive Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in December 2020. The pharmacy department faced challenges including stringent vaccine storage requirements, a need for specific equipment and workflow, limited funding, and staffing constraints. The pharmacy department’s senior leaders defined pharmacy responsibilities, budgeted for equipment, participated in vaccination center design, and instructed pharmacy informatics personnel. The vaccine coordinators were appointed to oversee all vaccination-related operations. An ultra–low temperature freezer was installed 2 weeks before arrival of the first shipment of vaccine. All pharmacy order entry tools and operating procedures were standardized, and staff training and schedules were finalized by December 15. The first dose of the vaccine was administered on December 16 at the vaccination center. Pharmacy staff members dispensed the vaccine doses and monitored patients. By January 6, 2021, MWHC had vaccinated 3,812 employees with their first vaccine dose, with an average of 228 doses administered daily. Conclusion Key strategies such as systemic coordination, early preparation, detailed planning, operating procedure development, and staff education and engagement proved successful in facilitating preparation of thousands of COVID-19 vaccine doses for hospital employees within a short period of time.

Evaluating Pharmacists’ Pharmacological Knowledge and Views Regarding Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine in Saudi Arabia

“…In solution to provide ample knowledge and information about Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, a strong pharmacy management team must be made to utilize well the vaccine, identify possible hindrances, set a clear timeline, and most importantly educate the staff regarding the whole process of vaccine rollout. 38 Other methods of lowering vaccine hesitancy is by introducing them, particularly the pharmacists conducting the vaccine rollouts, then the general public through implementation of epidemiology (infectious diseases) education within undergraduate dental curricula. 39 …”

Applying Lean principles to create a high throughput mass COVID-19 vaccination site

“…The time required to fill out the consent form was shortened by 2–3 min for those who had filled out the online form before arrival (approximately one-fourth of vaccinees). Because the 5 areas were 6 feet apart, walk times were only 2–3 s. Reconstituting the vaccine was performed by a pharmacist team as previously described following the manufacturer’s instructions10 and represented a separate process that was conducted in a site adjacent to the vaccine stations (online supplemental figure S1).…”

“…One modest-sized site used a large conference room and 5 vaccinators to perform 250–300 vaccinations/day. Vaccinations were administered for 14 hours each day, therefore, each vaccinator performed 4–5 injections/hour or less than one quarter the output per vaccinator of our system 10. A mass-vaccination site in San Diego took place in a 280 000 square foot parking lot and used 300 as compared with our 78 personnel to deliver 5000 vaccines/day,11 our approach achieving 3.4-fold higher productivity.…”

Vaccination Schedule under Conditions of Limited Vaccine Production Rate

“…Another issue is the management and implementation of the vaccination procedure, which is also the subject of scientific research (e.g., [46,47]), but falls beyond the scope of this article, as do the issues of vaccine production and supply chain organization [48][49][50][51][52][53]. Given the prediction of future pandemics [54], further exploration of this topic is warranted.…”