A multimodal approach to improving human papillomavirus vaccination in a community pharmacy setting

BACKGROUND: Community pharmacy has become a major access point for several types of vaccinations. Despite the success of vaccination programs like influenza, pneumococcal, and herpes zoster, the rates of human papillomavirus vaccination continue to lag. OBJECTIVES: The primary objective is to describe and report on the impact of a multimodal series of pharmacist-led educational interventions on human papillomavirus vaccination rates in a community pharmacy setting. The primary outcome of this study was change in pharmacist-delivered human papillomavirus vaccination throughout a corresponding 8-week period in 2014 and 2015. METHODS: A single-center, quasi-experimental interrupted time series mixed-methods pilot study was used to investigate a pharmacist-led, multimodal educational intervention approach to improve human papillomavirus vaccination rates in the community. RESULTS: During the 2014 control period, there were no human papillomavirus vaccines dispensed or administered according to the internal prescription dispensing software. In 2015, a total of 10 patients indicated that they were vaccinated, with 9 patients receiving their first dose and 1 patient receiving his or her second dose at the pharmacy. Pharmacist recommendation was the most reported education method for increasing patient awareness of the human papillomavirus vaccine (n = 10). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates pharmacist designed, educational interventions may impact human papillomavirus vaccination rates in the community. Further community-based research with larger sample sizes is warranted to verify these results. Due to the unique barriers to human papillomavirus vaccination, a multimodal and inter-professional approach such as the one presented here is warranted.