More vaccines at pharmacies?

On Thursday, March 3 the state Senate will vote on SB 325, a bill to expand the list of vaccines pharmacists may administer.

Right now pharmacists can give consumers flu, pneumonia, and shingles vaccines.

As originally written, SB 325 expands that list to include hepatitis, Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis), chickenpox, meningitis, and MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccines.  However, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee is recommending cutting that list of new vaccines back to only MMR.

Supporters of allowing pharmacists to administer more vaccines argue that it increases immunization rates and saves consumers the costs of an office visit.

“The reason for allowing so is primarily to reduce cost and increase convenience to consumers,” testified bill sponsor Sen. Donna Soucy.

Many other states allow pharmacists to administer all of the vaccines originally included in SB 325.

However, at the bill hearing January 26, legislators expressed concern that some of the vaccines should be administered on a schedule, which a patient’s doctor would have no way of tracking.

As Dr. Everett Lamm from Exeter Hospital testified, “It’s difficult to imagine that anyone would blindly administer vaccines to a patient without access to the patient’s chart containing their past and current medical history and confirming their vaccination history.”

Do you think pharmacists should be allowed to administer more vaccines?  Which vaccines?  Share your thoughts in the comments.