Part of the consistent focus on TotalWellness event excellence involves familiarizing yourselves with the different types of flu shots that are on the market. In recent years, we’ve transitioned from administering one single type of flu shot to administering a variety of vaccines.

Checking Your Shipment

The most important thing to remember when it comes to the type of flu shot administered at your event is simply to double check. If you’re responsible for receiving the shipment for your event, open it up immediately after it arrives.

Inside your shipment, you’ll find the necessary supplies, as well as an event worksheet and a packing slip. Please, please, please, don’t just stick the vaccine in the fridge and call it good. You need to verify that the vaccine matches the event worksheet and packing slip so we can correct any discrepancies before it’s too late.

The Packing Slip will list exactly what should be in the box. Check that the number listed of vials and pre-filled syringes match what you received in the shipment. The Packing Slip will account for any extra vaccine that was sent.

The Event Worksheet will list what’s been ordered for the event. This means it will list the number of shots ordered (not the number of vials in your shipment). If a client has ordered fewer than 100 shots, no extra vaccine will be provided. If they’ve ordered more than 100 shots, one extra vial will be provided for every 100 shots.

Remember that one vial can be used for 10 flu shots. Do the math to be sure your Packing Slip correlates with your Event Worksheet, and that these numbers accurately represent the quantity of vaccine you received.

Determining Vaccine Type

We deal with four different types of vaccine. When you check your shipment (as soon as you receive it, of course), be sure you’ve received the right type.

Vials of flu shots are meant to draw up multiple doses from each vial. This is the type of flu shot we most often use. It simply comes in a vial, and will be referred to as a multi-dose vial because you can draw up multiple doses from the one vial.

Preservative-free vaccines come in pre-filled syringes. These are less common, but tend to be recommended for pregnant women. They’ll be referred to as preservative-free vaccine.

Both preservative-free and multi-dose vials can be either trivalent or quadrivalent.

Trivalent vaccine protects against three strains of the flu. It is considered the traditional, original flu shot. Multi-dose vials of trivalent vaccine will be labeled as “Regular” on your Event Worksheet. Preservative-free trivalent vaccine will be labeled as “Preservative-Free” on your Event Worksheet.

Trivalent boxes, vials and pre-filled syringes will not say trivalent or quadrivalent. They will simply display the vaccine name and information.

Quadrivalent vaccine protects against four strains of the flu. This is a newer vaccine composition, and is generating more popularity each year. Both multi-dose and preservative-free quadrivalent vaccine will be labeled as “Quadrivalent” on your Event Worksheet.

Quadrivalent boxes, vials and pre-filled syringes will clearly be labeled with the word quadrivalent. If any vaccine does not say the word quadrivalent, it is not quadrivalent vaccine.

Incorrect Vaccine Shipments

Again, it’s incredibly important that you check your shipment as soon as you get it. We try our very best to ensure shipping mistakes are avoided. If you do notice any discrepancies between your documents and the vaccine in your shipment, call the TotalWellness shipping team right away.

TotalWellness Shipping Department
888-434-4358 Ext. 103

If you get ahold of us with any issues as soon as possible, we’ll likely be able to fix the mistake, ship the correct vaccine overnight, and avoid any problems at the event.

If you don’t get the shipment checked in time, contact TotalWellness as soon as you realize a mistake has been made. The Account Manager assigned to your event will work with the client site contact to determine a solution.

Flu season is as busy for us as it is for all of you. We appreciate your patience and the work you do at our flu events. If we all stay on the same page, we can make it through this busy time having put on excellent events every single time.

When it comes to the different types of flu vaccine administered at your event, please double check your shipments early, remain organized, and communicate with us if you have any concerns.

What questions do you have about the different types of vaccine we administer at TotalWellness events?