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New Jersey News: Final Draft of the Joint Proposal on Pharmacist Immunization
Reprinted from the January 2009 New Jersey Board of Pharmacy Newsletter.
The New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners and New Jersey Board of Pharmacy have formulated and approved a final draft which addresses public comments to the proposal previously published in the New Jersey Register. The three major changes in the final draft are as follows:
1. Pharmacists are no longer required to be certified in the use of a defibrillator, or to have a defibrillator on-site when administering immunizations. Therefore, N.J.A.C. 13:39-4.20(b)3 (“Current certification in the use of a heart defibrillator”) has been removed. Accordingly, N.J.A.C. 13:39-4.20(g) (“A defibrillator, which shall be maintained in good working order, shall be available during the administration of vaccines . . .”) has also been removed.
2. The American Heart Association and American Red Cross are no longer the only acceptable providers of current certification in basic life support or resuscitation that would satisfy the requirements of N.J.A.C. 13:39-4.20(b)2. The amended rule now allows pharmacists to be certified in:
a. the American Heart Association Basic Life Support (BLS) protocol,
b. the Red Cross Cardiac Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) protocol for health care providers, or
c. a course that complies with guidelines created by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR).
3. In order to bring the recordkeeping requirements in line with those of the Board of Medical Examiners, N.J.A.C. 13:39-4.20(l) has been amended as follows: “All documentation and records required to be maintained by this section shall be maintained in either hard copy or electronic form for a period of not less than seven years from the date of most recent entry. . . .” The draft regulation must now undergo internal review in the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety. Once approved, the final, adopted rule will be published in the New Jersey Register. The rule will become effective on the day it appears in the New Jersey Register.
