Age: 70.0
Sex: U
Vaccine: FLU3
Symptoms: Inadequate aseptic technique in use of product, Wrong drug administered
Clinical narrative: January 29, 2015. Reported by State Board of Pharmacy (Executive Secretary), by mail December 16, 2014, and via online form to the Department of State November 24, 2014. Have not received any answers, nor acknowledgement of my experience. WE WERE ADMINISTERED THE WRONG SEASONAL INFLUENZA VACCINATION BY THE PHARMACIST ON SEPTEMBER 24, 2014. On September 24, 2014, we went to the senior center for our appointment to receive the flu vaccine. We asked what vaccines were available and advantages of each. The technician ("working", on his laptop PC) simply said, "the high dose vaccine costs more". We both requested the quadrivalent vaccine because of the broader coverage and were not informed that it was not the vaccine we were to receive. Other Concerns: 1. No identification or proof of insurance coverage was requested - we could have written ANY 3-2-4 digit number on the form and pharmacy would not have been reimbursed, and our medical records would have been incomplete. 2. Pharmacist administering vaccine was not wearing gloves (recommended for mass inoculations as protection for the person giving the vaccine) and did not wash his hands between patients. he touched the internal syringe barrel with his bare fingers while drawing up the vaccine, potentially contaminating the injection. 3. After the vaccinations, no pressure was applied to the site while the pharmacist spent several minutes fumbling with a Band-Aid. Meanwhile, the flu vaccine is leaking out of the injection site. Very poor technique. 4. No pharmacy providers were wearing a name badge with name, or title. 5. Pink NCR copy of the Administration Consent Form given to us after the vaccination was unreadable, probably because the pen supplied did not transfer through multiple sheets. No offer was made to copy the original for our records. The form also was not signed by the person administering the vaccine. 6. There was no place on the Administration Consent Form to record the actual type of vaccine administered. It is important that the patient AND primary care physician know whether the vaccine was trivalent, quadrivalent, or high dose. The form that pharmacy uses currently is missing a place for this information. 7. Unless a medical service is documented, legally, it simple did not occur. When I asked the tech person who was on his laptop PC to record the details of the vaccine, (manufacturer/brand, lot number, expiration date, volume administered, type of vaccine, and site of injection, he reluctantly wrote most information on my form (not the type of vaccine though), but I am 99% sure he did not go back and write such information on my top/original copy of the form, thus the pharmacy did not capture spontaneous details. Again, the form was never signed by the person administering the vaccine. Such documentation must be done as the procedure is completed. (Many state health departments actually record all the data BEFORE the vaccine is administered). A person getting a vaccination outside of their primary physician's office should inform their doctor that they have had such a vaccination. Without details on the carbon copy sheet of the form (which was virtually unreadable), their doctor will not be able to enter such information into the patient medical record. 8. Although we requested to receive the quadrivalent vaccine, and the dose was withdrawn from a 5 mL multidose vial the manufacturer, Novartis, was written on my pink form. I checked online for suppliers of flu vaccine, and found that Novartis did not manufacture a quadrivalent vaccine for 2014-15. When we stopped at the pharmacy on November 1, 2014, for a  completed copy of the consent form, they were filled and signed, but still no indication of which vaccine we had received. I asked the pharmacist on duty (who just happened to be the one who had administered the vaccinations back on September 24th) which vaccine he had given us. He replied it had been trivalent. When I confronted him by saying that we had requested the quadrivalent vaccine, he had given us the wrong vaccine, he put his head down, continued working and refused to answer me. 9. SINCE I RECEIVED THE WRONG DRUG, I WILL NOT BE PAYING THE PORTION BILLED TO ME. I AM ALSO NOTIFYING AGENCY AND STATE BOARD OF PHARMACY OF THIS ERROR. 10. I e-mailed the owner/operator of the pharmacy, October 26, 2014 and asked to have a conversation with the pharmacist who is in charge of ALL the vaccine programs for pharmacy, not the person who administered the wrong vaccines at the senior center, and that she forward my e-mail and telephone concerns before that person contacts me. She insists everything was done "according to protocol", and no one from pharmacy has contacted me. If this is truly "according to protocol", something is seriously wrong, clinically. I attempted to contact pharmacy through their "Contact Us" website in early November, but no on responded, and I was stonewalled again. 11. I believe every person who was vaccinated that date at the senior center had details filled in after the fact, so their pink NCR form is incomplete. I suggested that a completed, hard copy of the top page be copied and mailed out to all patients. This suggestion was rejected by the store manager.