It is flu season and Steve Simenson is busy. He is administering flu shots, working with local physicians, teaching residents how to stay flu-free and creating easy, accessible ways for his community to get immunized.
Simenson, FAPhA, does not work in a local health department — he is a community pharmacist. The owner of a chain of independent pharmacies in the Minneapolis suburbs, Simenson said when he first began offering flu shots a decade ago, he and his colleagues were administering about 500 vaccines a year. Now, they give up to 7,000 flu shots annually.
“There’s a unique and different perspective that a pharmacist can add to the public health effort,” Simenson told The Nation’s Health. “With diminishing resources, the more we work together, the more people we can help.”
Continue reading this story from the February 2012 issue of The Nation’s Health, APHA’s newspaper.
2 comments
LemonM says:
Feb 2, 2012
It’s great to see growing recognition that pharmacists are part of the public health system. Health departments should explore more opportunities to partner with them, as it will reach more people in the community. After all, more people come into contact with pharmacies — at the grocery store, at Target, at CVS — on a regular basis than physically go to their health department.
Steve simenson | Seekerssurpris says:
Oct 30, 2012
[...] Pharmacists taking on greater role in fight against influenza | Public …Feb 2, 2012 … It is flu season and Steve Simenson is busy. He is administering flu shots, working with local physicians, teaching residents how to stay flu-free … [...]