Advancing public health informatics during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learned from a public-private partnership with pharmacies

Nkenge Jones-Jack; Roua El Kalach; Diana Yassanye; Ruth Link-Gelles; Abdulhakeem Olorukooba; Amee Khamar deMartino; Mattie Elam; Doug Romerhausen; Marley Vazquez; Chris Duggar; Christine Kim; Anita Patel; Angela Guo; Radhika Gharpure; Ashley Tippins; Lori Moore

doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.01.092

Advancing public health informatics during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learned from a public-private partnership with pharmacies

Vaccine. 2024 Jan 31:S0264-410X(24)00116-6. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.01.092. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Nkenge Jones-Jack¹, Roua El Kalach², Diana Yassanye², Ruth Link-Gelles², Abdulhakeem Olorukooba², Amee Khamar deMartino³, Mattie Elam⁴, Doug Romerhausen⁴, Marley Vazquez², Chris Duggar², Christine Kim⁵, Anita Patel², Angela Guo², Radhika Gharpure², Ashley Tippins², Lori Moore²

Affiliations

¹ COVID-19 Response Team, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States. Electronic address: ncj9@cdc.gov.
² COVID-19 Response Team, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States.
³ COVID-19 Response Team, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States; Chickasaw Health Consulting, LLC, Norman, OK, United States.
⁴ COVID-19 Response Team, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States; Goldbelt Professional Services, LLC, Chesapeake, VA, United States.
⁵ COVID-19 Response Team, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States; Epidemic Intelligence Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States.

PMID: 38302337
DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.01.092

Abstract

To support efforts to vaccinate millions of Americans across the United States (US) against COVID-19, the US federal government (USG) launched the Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program (PPP) in December 2020 and the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program (FRPP) in February 2021. These programs consisted of a collaborative partnership with the USG and 21 pharmacy organizations, including large retail chains, coordinating pharmacy services administrative organizations (PSAOs) representing independent retail and long-term care pharmacies, and pharmacy network administrators. These pharmacy organizations represented over 46,000 providers and created a robust channel for far-reaching COVID-19 vaccination across 56 state and local jurisdictions. PPP reported more than 8 million COVID-19 doses administered to residents and staff in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) as of June 2021. In addition, FRPP was responsible for administering more than 304 million doses, accounting for approximately 49% of all COVID-19 doses administered as of June 2023. This unprecedented public-private partnership allowed USG to rapidly adapt, expand, and aim to provide equitable access to vaccines for adults and eligible-aged children during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the largest federal COVID-19 vaccination program, the FRPP exemplifies how public-private partnerships can expand access to immunizations during a public health emergency. End-to-end informatics support helped pharmacies meet critical national public health goals and served as convenient access points for sustained health services. This manuscript describes lessons learned regarding informatics coordination with participating pharmacy partners to support the rapid and safe administration of COVID-19 vaccines across the US. The processes of onboarding to CDC's complex data network, establishing connections to state and local immunization information systems (IIS), and monitoring the quality of data pharmacy partners submitted to the CDC Data Clearinghouse (DCH) in alignment with the COVID-19 Vaccine Reporting Specifications (CVRS) are highlighted.

Keywords: COVID-19; Immunization; Informatics; Long-term care facilities; Partnerships; Pharmacy; Pharmacy management systems; Public health surveillance; Vaccine administration.