ABSTRACT
IntroductionWith the emergence of the first COVID-19 case in Saudi Arabia, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare has immediately executed the appropriate protocols in response to this severe global crisis. The pharmacy department at Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare continues to play an essential role in providing the safest, efficient, and effective service to its eligible patients. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the pharmacy department acted by implementing a drive-through pharmacy and home delivery services as new person-centered services to ensure patient safety. These two new services were initiated to protect both the pharmacist and the patient from COVID-19 infections as they ensure social distancing and reduce patients? visits to the walk-in pharmacies, hence providing valuable and convenient services during this pandemic.ObjectiveThis article aims to describe the implementation processes and effectiveness of drive-through medication pick-up and home-delivery services as a patient safety initiative during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodThe implementation process of the drive-through and home delivery services are explained in detail. The utilization of these two services is evaluated by measuring the number of patients and prescriptions between April 2020 and August 2020.ResultThe increased utilization of drive-through medication pick-up and home delivery services in terms of the number of patients and prescriptions ensures patient safety by minimizing infection risk.ConclusionThe increase in the utilization of drive-through medication pick-up and home delivery services reflects its successful implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both services meet the pandemic?s social-distancing requirements and minimize risks of infections, which will ensure patient safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The newly emerged coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has collapsed the entire global health care system. Due to these settings, a lot of strategic changes are adopted by healthcare facilities to ensure continuity in patient-centered services. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of structural and operational changes made in ambulatory care pharmacy services during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A retrospective comparative study was conducted to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of patient-centered interventions and consequent access to medication management care within Johns Hopkins Aramco Health Care ambulatory care pharmacy services during the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing patient-centered key performance indicators before and during COVID-19 pandemic for a total of 4 months. RESULTS: As a result of the structural and operational changes made in patient-centered ambulatory care pharmacy services during the COVID-19 pandemic, a 48% prescriptions requests and 90% prescriptions fills are increased through online health portal application. A three-fold increase in the pharmacy call center utilization resulted in around 10% abandoned calls. In the number of physical visits to ambulatory care pharmacies, a 37% reduction was also noted. The decrease in staff schedule efficiency and an increase in average prescription waiting time were also noticed. The prescription collection through remote area pick up locations, and medication home delivery services were successful during COVID-19 pandemic as supported by statistical data. CONCLUSION: The access to ambulatory care pharmacy services during COVID-19 pandemic has been successfully maintained via medication home delivery, remote area pickup locations, pharmacy call-center consultations and refill requests, online health portal application services, and other measures, while reducing the number of physical visits to the JHAH hospital/clinic to ensure compliance with infection control and prevention measures.