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With the holidays quickly approaching, please be mindful of shipping delays, limited or no shipping days, and plan your vaccine orders accordingly. December 10th is the last day you can submit a vaccine order to receive the delivery before January. Please note that there will be no vaccine deliveries made during the week of Christmas and New Year's. You can place an order off your typical schedule if needed. Please ensure your accountability reports are up to date prior to placing orders to ensure expedited processing. It's also a good idea to update your shipping hours in your provider agreement if needed. Check out the holiday shipping calendar on our website for more information.
Reminder: DOH Offices will be closed Thursday November 28th and Friday November 29th.
McKesson will deliver COVID-19 (Moderna) vaccines to providers under refrigerated or frozen temperatures, depending on the origin of the shipment. If the vaccine is received frozen, it can be stored as such. However, if it arrives under refrigerated conditions, the provider must store it in their fridge and mark with the Beyond-Use-Date (BUD) of 60 days. Once the vaccine is in refrigerated temperature conditions, it cannot be refrozen.
Please refer to the for more information.
Lots of Novavax COVID-19 vaccine expiring 11/30/2024 will not be granted a shelf-life extension. CDC currently does not have inventory of Novavax COVID-19 vaccine that expires later than 11/30/2024. Because it is currently less than 18 days until expiry of current inventory, no vaccine shipments of Novavax COVID-19 vaccine will be made until additional inventory with longer dated product (i.e., product expiring 12/31/2024) is available. CDC has placed a replenishment order for Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, and we expect to be able to resume shipping provider orders by the end of next week.
- Novavax is pursuing a shelf-life extension for this and future lots of vaccine with a goal of monthly shelf-life updates throughout the COVID vaccination season.
- CDC will continue to distribute Novavax vaccine up until 18 days before expiry.
- To minimize vaccine wastage, CDC advises placing smaller, more frequent provider orders and limiting quantities to the amount of vaccine that can be utilized within a two-week period.
Doses currently in provider inventories with an expiration date of 11/30/2024 should continue to be administered through this date.
For all vaccines provided through the Childhood Vaccine Program, providers are required to offer the appropriate Vaccine Information Statement (VIS), Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) sheet, or Immunization Information Statement (IIS) prior to vaccination.
It can be confusing to determine which resource to provide when patients are receiving COVID or RSV products. The table below shows which document to offer prior to vaccination. For more information or to sign up for alerts when VIS are updated, visit the CDC VIS webpage.
Providers participating in the Childhood Vaccine Program must screen and document patient eligibility status at every immunization visit. This screening consists of confirming the patient's age (under 19) and reviewing patient demographic information including verifying the patient’s insurance. Then providers must use this information to determine the patient’s eligibility status and document the status in their medical record.
The Eligibility for Publicly Funded Vaccines – A Guide for Providers (PDF) includes a description of each eligibility status and information on Electronic Health Record codes and billing guidelines associated with each status.
Providers can document patient eligibility status in:
For additional information, visit the DOH Patient Eligibility webpage.
Contact WAChildhoodVaccines@doh.wa.gov if you have any questions.
Beginning January 1, 2025, the Childhood Vaccine Program will have a new annual training requirement that will replace the CDC's You Call the Shots trainings. We have created a nine- module, Washington State specific, training program that will cover all the important information needed to participate in the Childhood Vaccine Program. This training will also be a valuable resource to help orient new staff to the program.
The self-paced modules will be presented in TRAIN.org and will cover the following topics:
- Intro to the Childhood Vaccine Program
- Storage & Handling Best Practices
- Temperature Monitoring
- Ordering & Receiving Vaccines
- Inventory
- Vaccine Returns
- Vaccine Transfers
- Eligibility Screening, Documentation & Billing
- Off-Site and Mobile Vaccination Clinics
We are in the process of applying for continuing education credits for nurses, medical assistants and pharmacists/pharmacy techs. Keep an eye on the Vaccine Blurbs for more details!
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