Impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the provision of pharmaceutical care in community pharmacies.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Community pharmacists and their teams are easy accessible healthcare providers with an important role in primary care. As a consequence of the COVID-19 epidemic, (pharmaceutical) care and specifically communication between patients and healthcare providers is compromised. OBJECTIVE: To describe the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the provision of pharmaceutical care in the Netherlands. METHODS: A cross-sectional study with an online questionnaire was sent to community pharmacies in the Netherlands. The questionnaire covered the following main topics changes in pharmacy setting and logistic procedures, communication about medication and baseline characteristics. RESULTS: Pharmacies implemented hygiene measures and minimized direct patient-provider contact, e.g. by delivering medication at home to a wider range of patients (47.0%), temporarily not conducting medication reviews (55.8%) and only performing inhalation instructions via telephone (22.3%). Only a small number of pharmacies used telepharmacy, such as video calling during patient education and counseling. A total of 76.7% of the participants expressed concerns towards the pharmaceutical care for vulnerable patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show considerable impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on both logistic procedures and services regarding patient education and counseling. Pharmacies should be stimulated to implement telepharmacy or remote service to optimally support patients during the COVID-19 epidemic.