Receiving Vaccines
Providers are accountable for vaccines upon receipt and assume responsibility for storing in temperature-controlled environments to protect the cold chain. Open and verify vaccine shipments immediately and store vaccines in the appropriate storage units. Shipments that are mishandled after delivery are considered negligent losses, and replacement vaccine orders might not be expedited.
Key Points
- Never reject or return a vaccine shipment.
- Open immediately and look for damage. Potency may be reduced if vaccines get too warm.
- Never place unopened, unpacked shipment in a vaccine storage unit as thermal shippers may expose vaccine to temperatures that are too cold.
- Check shipment for temperature excursions and content discrepancies before storing.
- Report shipment incidents in myCAvax the day shipments arrive.
About Shipments
Vaccines ship under different storage temperatures and by different shippers. Click to explore these topics:
Refrigerated
McKesson Specialty ships refrigerated vaccines with a TagAlert monitor for warm and cold temperature excursions during transit. Follow instructions on device or flyer insert (PDF) to determine if temperature alarms were triggered during shipment.
Frozen
Merck ships frozen varicella-containing vaccines. Although there is no temperature indicator, the shipper insert indicates a “delivery by date” that must be checked to ensure shipment arrived during the specified delivery window. Vaccine diluents ship separately from vaccine.
COVID-19 Vaccines
COVID-19 vaccines have some differences in receiving.
If required, diluent ships separately and will arrive at the same time or before vaccines. Check packing slip’s shipment date to determine how long vaccines were in transit. See Vaccine Receiving Checklist (PDF) for product-specific guidance.
Questionable Shipments
Vaccine shipments exposed to out-of-range temperatures or received outside the shipping time specified on shipper inserts must be labeled Do Not Use (PDF) and stored in vaccine refrigerators or freezers—separate from the rest of the vaccine stock—until the Provider Call Center (or VFC Call Center for VFC orders) provides additional instructions.
Returning Shippers
For McKesson Specialty. Return EcoFlex thermal shipping containers for reuse following flyer instructions. Discard KoolTemp thermal shipping containers and all TagAlert devices.
For Merck frozen vaccines: Return thermal shipping containers using UPS label enclosed with packing list.
For Pfizer-BioTech. Follow manufacturer instructions for single-use and reusable thermal shippers.
How to Receive
To comply with requirements and best practices, follow guidance in Vaccine Receiving Checklist (PDF).