Nevada News: The Nevada Immunization Learning Exchange

July 1, 2008 12:06 pm Topics: Vaccinations

Reprinted from the July 2008 Nevada State Board of Pharmacy Newsletter.

As pharmacists increase their role within the medical community by providing immunizations, it is important that they recognize the reasoning behind reporting. The goal is that each patient has an up-to-date medical record, that medical providers have access to an updated medical record, and that the proper government entity has access to this data.

NAC 639.2976 lists current requirements of reporting for pharmacists administering immunizations. The regulation states that pharmacists must report to the physician of protocol, the primary care physician, the county health department, and the statewide immunization registry. When this requirement was adopted, the legislature had not yet created the department to establish and run the immunization registry. This has resulted in confusion over this portion of the regulation, mainly that which refers to reporting to the immunization registry.

There is a now a solution. The Nevada State Immunization Program is currently revisiting its regulations and would like pharmacists to have access to the immunization registry, Nevada WebIZ, as well. The Nevada Immunization Learning Exchange (NILE) is a program that provides free training for health care professionals. Up until recently, the NILE program was mainly offered to physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and medical assistants. These groups were the only ones with access to the state of Nevada immunization registry.

The NILE program is free. Sessions are either given as one three-hour program, or broken down into three one-hour programs. During this program, the pharmacist or other health care professional will become more familiar with WebIZ. This program will also provide the participant with information on current immunization recommendations, immunization techniques, vaccine updates, vaccine handling, and vaccine storage.

For more information about the NILE program, contact Heidi Hurst.

• Phone number 775/770-6713
• E-mail address Heidi.Hurst@chw.edu