Community pharmacies utilize text message communications for information regarding approaching refills and fill status. Patients can also be notified regarding annual influenza vaccine availability and schedule an appointment for the vaccine.

To evaluate if text message communications affected patient presentation and resulted in a percent increase of patients receiving an influenza vaccine compared to previous vaccine season and to determine if additional vaccines are administered upon presentation.

Ambidirectional study retrospectively analyzed the impact, nationally, of a new text message communication on influenza vaccinations at a large community pharmacy chain and prospectively surveyed patients receiving an influenza vaccine at two geographically similar pharmacies of the chain in Southwest Virginia. Text message communications regarding vaccine and appointment availability were sent to patients 18 years and older who opted in to text message communications and received an influenza vaccine with the chain during the 2019-2020 influenza season. Vaccine data from consecutive seasons were compared. Eligible patients in Southwest Virginia were surveyed about how they were informed about availability, prior intent to receive an influenza vaccine, applicability to other vaccines, and effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on vaccination. Results were analyzed using bivariate and multivariate analyses.

Nationally, influenza vaccines administered increased by 17.45% in patients who permitted text message communication and overall by 13.22% after implementation. Decreases in co-administered pneumococcal vaccines and Tdap vaccines and an increase in co-administered Zoster vaccines were observed. 111 patients were surveyed. 4% presented due to text message communication. A majority were intent on receiving the vaccine before being notified and reported that the pandemic did not affect presentation. 45.05% of patients were likely to receive routine vaccines if notified by text message.

Text message communications are another viable way to increase vaccinations, but further studies should be conducted outside of a pandemic setting.

Accepted: July 8, 2022

Received in revised form: July 6, 2022

Received: May 23, 2022

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors

The authors declare no relevant conflicts of interest or financial relationships.

Author Contributions: Bernard Cabatit: conceptualization, development, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, writing- original draft, visualization, supervision, project administration; Morgan Grant: conceptualization, development, investigation, writing-Review & Editing, visualization; Pramit Nadpara: validation, formal analysis Jean-Venable Goode: development, writing-Review & Editing, visualization

Previous presentations: Presented as a virtual poster at the American Pharmacist Association Annual meeting March 11, 2021 and as a virtual podium presentation at the University of North Carolina Research in Education and Practice Symposium in Chapel Hill, NC May 18, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.japh.2022.07.005

© 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the American Pharmacists Association.