COVID-19 pandemic preparedness: A practical guide from an operational pharmacy perspective.
Am J Health Syst Pharm
; 77(19): 1598-1605, 2020 09 18.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1317904
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
To describe our medical center's pharmacy services preparedness process and offer guidance to assist other institutions in preparing for surges of critically ill patients such as those experienced during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.SUMMARY:
The leadership of a department of pharmacy at an urban medical center in the US epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic proactively created a pharmacy action plan in anticipation of a surge in admissions of critically ill patients with COVID-19. It was essential to create guidance documents outlining workflow, provide comprehensive staff education, and repurpose non-intensive care unit (ICU)-trained clinical pharmacotherapy specialists to work in ICUs. Teamwork was crucial to ensure staff safety, develop complete scheduling, maintain adequate drug inventory and sterile compounding, optimize the electronic health record and automated dispensing cabinets to help ensure appropriate prescribing and effective management of medication supplies, and streamline the pharmacy workflow to ensure that all patients received pharmacotherapeutic regimens in a timely fashion.CONCLUSION:
Each hospital should view the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity to internally review and enhance workflow processes, initiatives that can continue even after the resolution of the COVID-19 pandemic.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pharmacy Service, Hospital
/
Practice Guidelines as Topic
/
Medication Therapy Management
/
COVID-19 Drug Treatment
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
Am J Health Syst Pharm
Journal subject:
Pharmacy
/
Hospitals
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS