Customizing immunization clinic operations to minimize open vial waste

Maryam H. Mofrad, Gian-Gabriel P. Garcia, Lisa M. Maillart, Bryan A. Norman and Jayant Rajgopal

Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 2016, vol. 54, issue C, 1-17

Abstract: Many multi-dose vaccine vials must be used within hours of reconstitution; unused doses are discarded as “open vial waste.” Building on Mofrad et al. (2014), we evaluate operating strategies that maximize coverage by controlling open vial waste. We define novel metrics for determining thresholds on vaccination clinic operating hours and session frequency. We study the performance of optimal and heuristic policies in the presence of random vial yield. Cost analyses indicate significant potential savings. Because optimal strategies are context specific, we also develop a decision support tool (available online) to easily replicate the analysis for any problem setting.

Keywords: Multi-dose vial; Vaccine administration policy; Open vial waste; Vaccine coverage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:soceps:v:54:y:2016:i:c:p:1-17

DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2015.10.007

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