Objectives: The objectives of this study were to analyze the impact a pharmacist phone call has played on patients completing the 2-dose shingles vaccine series and to explore the effect that patient cost has on the second dose administration.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study design was used to evaluate whether patients who had a pharmacist phone call intervention were more likely to return for their second recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV) dose than patients who did not have a pharmacist phone call intervention. In addition, the impact of immunization cost on series completion was analyzed. The study evaluated the SHINGRIX call lists from 10 randomly selected pharmacies within a large pharmacy chain. The percentage of patients who received the call intervention and their second RZV dose was compared with the percentage of patients who did not receive the intervention yet returned for their second dose of RZV. A chi-square test of independence analyzed the relationship between the 2 variables. An odds ratio (OR) was calculated to determine the relationship between payment data and second dose return status.
Results: The relationship between pharmacists' phone calls and patients' return for the second dose vaccination was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Based on payment data, the relationship between the cost of the first dose to the patient and the second dose vaccination was not statistically significant (OR 0.6703; 95% CI 0.4153-1.082).
Conclusion: A higher percentage of patients received their second RZV dose if they spoke with a pharmacist. Based on the results of this study, a pharmacist's intervention may affect completion rates of the RZV series more than cost.
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