Published on

Local, state, and federal health officials are reminding clinicians and occupational medicine providers to follow safe immunizations practices in the wake of serial missteps during a workplace vaccination program in New Jersey. An article published in the December 18 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report notes “disregard for basic vaccine safety” that set in motion a mad scramble to assess and contain any potential danger to 67 workers whom they believe received shots with a reused syringe. The authors note multiple errors, some of them systemic, including:

  • Shipping of influenza vaccine to the home of a contract nurse, where it was stored in a home refrigerator without temperature monitoring
  • Vaccine transport from the nurse’s home to the vaccination site in unmonitored containers with cold packs
  • The nurse bringing three multidose vials of vaccine intended for another event to the vaccination site instead of the prefilled, single-dose syringes intended for the event in question
  • Use of just two syringes that happened to be in the nurse’s supplies to administer vaccine to 67 employees
  • The nurse trying to minimize the threat of contamination by wiping the syringes with alcohol and using just a new needle for each subject
  • Administering inadequate vaccine doses by drawing 67 doses from only two of the 10-dose vials

A local urgent care center worked with the municipal health department to conduct blood testing, provide postexposure preventive care with hepatitis B vaccine, and readminister influence vaccine in correct doses. The urgent care center also provided mental health and HIV counsellors.

Clinicians and Occ Med Providers Warned to Mind Safe Immunization Practices
Log In