Tennessee pharmacists administer 35,000 vaccines through statewide initiative

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — More Tennesseans are now vaccinated against the flu, COVID-19, RSV, pneumonia, shingles, and other diseases thanks to the statewide initiative, “ Closing the Gap ,” which worked to educate and encourage Tennesseans to get vaccinated and position community pharmacists as trusted sources for healthcare information and services.

“Closing the Gap” was launched by the Tennessee Pharmacists Association (TPA) in 2023.

Through funding from the Tennessee Department of Health, the TPA helped local pharmacists across all 95 counties administer more than 35,000 vaccines and educate pharmacists on how to facilitate conversations with patients about vaccine hesitancy.

“Vaccines are a critical piece to the public health of our state, of our county, of any community,” Anthony Pudlo, the CEO of the Tennessee Pharmacists Association said. “When we have research that demonstrates the value of what an injection does to help prevent various types of diseases, it’s a critical piece. It’s not just for diseases like COVID-19, but for influenza, for shingles, for whooping cough.”

According to the TPA’s data, 44.3% of the vaccines administered through the “Closing the Gap” initiative were for the flu, 23.1% were for COVID-19, 14.3% were for shingles, 8.4% were for RSV, 5.5% were from pneumonia, and 4.4% were for tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis.

Thanks to the program, pharmacists across Tennessee also facilitated more than 52,000 conversations with patients about vaccine hesitancy, which is a problem that only got worse due to the pandemic, according to the TPA.

“There were always questions that individuals had about the effectiveness and the value of vaccines. I think what happened through the pandemic is it just spurred more questions,” Pudlo said. “What we saw, even through the course of this initiative, is pharmacists had to have multiple conversations with a patient or their caregivers about the value of vaccines and try to overcome some of those questions and the hesitation for them.”

“Closing the Gap” mainly focused on rural communities where access to healthcare is limited. The counties that led the state for vaccines included Anderson, Dyer, Claiborne, and Chester.

Pudlo told News 2 the program also helped change people’s perceptions of pharmacists and prove they can be a valuable source for accurate healthcare information and services for individuals.

“For us, a lot of it was rural communities where we know a local pharmacy is a pillar of those rural communities and a trusted resource, so I think that’s where our application had a little more weight to it because we knew what pharmacists were capable of doing,” Pudlo said. “It might not just be vaccines that the local individual is coming to the pharmacy for, it could be TB testing, it could be fluoride treatment, it could be a little bit of everything depending on what that community needs that they’re coming to their pharmacist for.”

Currently, the TPA is working to teach pharmacists how to ensure the education portion of the “Closing the Gap” initiative is sustainable from a business standpoint through payment options using insurance.

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