The Pharmacist’s Evolving Role in Public and Community Health

An expert discusses how pharmacists are consistently cited as one of the most accessible health care providers, and provider recommendation is the strongest predictor of a patient accepting a vaccine, according to Jeffery Goad, PharmD, MPH, president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. Instead of simply waiting for a patient to ask for a flu shot, the pharmacist must use the pharmacy’s dispensing records and patient profile to systematically identify every patient who is due for a routine or recommended vaccine (eg, shingles, pneumococcal, Tdap) based on age, medical conditions, and medication history.

The pharmacist must also be prepared to briefly and professionally address common misconceptions and fears, serving as a trusted public health educator to build vaccine confidence in the community. This proactive approach transforms the pharmacy from a passive dispensing location into an active public health interventionsite, maximizing immunization opportunities that might otherwise be missed.

Although pharmacists have expanded authority to administer a wide range of vaccines, their ability to independently prescribe them, especially for complex travel itineraries or prophylactic treatments, is often still limited by state-specific collaborative practice agreements. The expansion will involve moving toward regulatory changes that grant pharmacists independent authority to prescribe a full range of recommended vaccines and related travel medications without requiring a protocol or physician agreement. Critically, this prescriptive authority will be combined with point-of-care laboratory testing (eg, testing for influenza, strep, or COVID-19). This integrated model is highly efficient, as it allows the pharmacist to diagnose an illness, administer appropriate immunizations, and potentially prescribe treatment all in a single visit.