Q&A: Community Pharmacies Help Increase Immunization Convenience, Uptake

Due to events stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, community pharmacists have since been touted as the most convenient and accessible health care providers for patients seeking immunization. In a world where patients were primarily going to physicians for immunization needs previously, community pharmacies have since become the ideal destinations for receiving vaccination.

“Community pharmacies are open on weekends, late in the evening,” said Hashim Zaibak, PharmD, CEO of Hayat Pharmacy. “It's a lot more convenient for people who are busy to come and get the vaccine in a community pharmacy versus getting it in a clinic or by appointment.”

Zaibak discussed the convenience offered through community pharmacies and how these locations have stepped up to boost vaccine uptake. | image credit: Dara / stock.adobe.com

Zaibak founded Hayat Pharmacy in 2011 and is currently operating 19 pharmacy locations across southeastern Wisconsin. Throughout the pandemic, Hayat Pharmacy administered over 100,000 COVID-19 vaccines and has since been administering a variety of immunizations to their community.

To better understand how Hayat’s immunization services have evolved since the pandemic, Zaibak joined Drug Topics to discuss the sheer convenience offered through community pharmacies and how these locations have stepped up to boost vaccine uptake.

READ MORE: Pharmacists Help Emphasize Importance of Immunizations for Patients

Drug Topics: What is the importance of immunization as a whole and how have community pharmacists particularly been able to step in and manage patients’ vaccinations?

Hashim Zaibak: When it comes to vaccination, it is definitely one of the most effective ways to reduce infectious disease in a community, whether it is COVID, flu, meningitis. It's obviously scientifically proven to be effective. When it comes to community pharmacy, it is the most accessible location to get vaccination.

You can walk into a community pharmacy and get vaccinated 7 days a week. You don't have to make an appointment. Community pharmacies are open on weekends, late in the evening. It's a lot more convenient for people who are busy to come and get the vaccine in a community pharmacy versus getting it in a clinic or by appointment.

Drug Topics: As an independent community pharmacy, how have vaccination services at your locations evolved from prior to the COVID-19 pandemic until now?

Hashim Zaibak: Before the pandemic, it was mainly the flu vaccine. More than 90% of the vaccines we administered before the pandemic were influenza vaccines. Randomly, we would [administer] other vaccines. People thought, ‘Oh, I need to go to the doctor to get my vaccines.’ But with the pandemic, people recognized that pharmacists are truly the most accessible health care providers [and] that pharmacists are easy to talk to.

In this location here, we gave over 100,000 COVID vaccines in this building. People started to recognize that pharmacists can vaccinate and administer other vaccines. Now, we get requests for a lot of different [vaccines].

People can come and get vaccines at our pharmacy 7 days a week, and they can vaccinate their children, and the adults, and the parents. It's a lot more convenient, and I think that convenience will make it easier for us to reach people that normally we don't reach because of how busy people are. The more convenient it is, the more likely people are going to get vaccinated.

READ MORE: Immunization Resource Center

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