LTC/AL residents and staff may begin to receive influenza and COVID-19 vaccinations before the official coordinated campaign start date for respiratory season. LTC/AL clinics typically begin immediately once vaccine supply is available in the province for the fall respiratory season campaign. Facilities will typically communicate directly with their pharmacy providers based on direction provided to them by the Health Authority.
Procuring vaccine inventory
In most cases the Health Authority will work with each residential care facility to determine the number of doses needed and either the facility. Pharmacies should confirm with each facility they are servicing what the process is for procuring the vaccines as they may be delivered by the Health Authority to the facility, picked-up by the facility or the pharmacy may be asked to pick them up.
Vaccine record entry for LTC/AL facilities
Here are instructions for completing vaccination records at an LTC/AL facility:
Setting User Defaults
- Ensure that your user default “Clinic Location” is set to the LTC/AL facility location.
- Ensure that you select your pharmacy as the "Pharmacy Billing Location" this is how payment is linked back to your pharmacy.
- When completing the Vaccination Administration record, in “Reason for Immunization” (a mandatory field) please select either AL Resident, LTC Resident, AL Staff or LTC Staff as appropriate.
ImmsBC inventory for LTC/AL facilities
- Health Authorities will be entering the COVID-19 and influenza vaccine transfers into ImmsBC and sending them to the facility’s supply location.
- Pharmacists providing vaccinations to the facility can access the facility’s supply location and must accept/confirm the transfers after the vaccine product & lot numbers have been verified against the physical product.
- Ensure that your user defaults (see above) are set to the LTC/AL facility for "Clinic Location" and your pharmacy as the "Pharmacy Billing Location". Note: There may be a lag when searching for a facility, and results might not appear after entering the first few letters. Reloading the page should resolve this. However, if the "Clinic Location" is not triggering the "Pharmacy Bill Location" field when you select LTC/AL Facility, please email either Bryce.Wong@bcpharmacy.ca or Rachel.Albert@bcpharmacy.ca for immediate assistance.
- If on the date of the clinic there are no transfers waiting for confirmation in the facility’s ImmsBC supply location, please follow the steps below:
- In ImmsBC find and open the facility’s Supply Location.
- Click on the "Related Items" tab.
- Click on the drop down arrow at the top right corner of the page and then click on the "Receive Supplies" option (see image 1).
- Complete the required fields in the "Receive Supplies’ pop-up window and enter the doses as '1' (see image 2).
- Send an email to Bryce.Wong@bcpharmacy.ca noting the following details (BCPhA will use this information to support the inventory reconciliation with the Health Authority that is necessary after the fact.):
- The Facility Location and date of clinic
- That the ‘Receive Supplies’ function was used
- Which products inventory was created for
Note that the "Receive Supplies" function should only be used for emergency situations as it creates inventory discrepancies that must be reported on and reconciled in the ImmsBC system.
Difficulty Finding Facility Supply Locations
- Open the Health Connect - Supply Console in ImmsBC.
- In the global search bar at the top of the ImmsBC application page, narrow the search to Supply Locations.
- Type in the Facility's name.
- Supply locations matching the name you type should appear in the drop-down.
- If you do not see the Facility's supply location as one of the search results and only see the Facility Profile, hover over the Facility's Profile name and you will see a pop-up to the right with a 'Related List Quick Links'.
- Click on the 'Supply Locations' link to get to the Facility's supply location.
Transferring Inventory to/from Facility Supply Locations
If you are using pharmacy inventory at a facility (e.g. you weren't provided standard dose QIV for <65) rather than switch between clinic locations when recording vaccinations, it is recommended you transfer your pharmacy inventory into the facility's supply location, confirm the transfer and then proceed with recording vaccinations as you would for the rest of the facility's residents.
If there are vaccines remaining at the end of a clinic and you are permitted to take the leftover stock to the pharmacy, please transfer the inventory from the facility to your pharmacy's supply location.
Pulling Vaccination Reports
Vaccinations given at an LTC/AL facility will not appear in a pharmacy's Daily Completed Report. For instructions on reviewing an LTC/AL facility's vaccinations completed refer to Reports in ImmsBC.
If you require general assistance, please contact immunizationsupport@bcpharmacy.ca or call 1 (800) 663-2840, press 5 for Immunization Support.