Comment on Gross and MacDougall “Roles of the clinical pharmacist during the COVID‐19 pandemic”

Abstract

The editorial by Gross and McDougall highlights the innovative roles that pharmacists have taken on during the COVID-19 pandemic.1 We aim to share our unique experience of multidisciplinary collaboration and adaptation of pharmacy practice within one of the nation's largest solid organ transplant (SOT) programs during the COVID-19 era. Recognizing the need to mitigate virus transmission, many team members, including our pharmacist, transitioned to working remotely. Following this change, our team swiftly initiated virtual rounding twice daily to improve communication between team members working onsite and remotely; multidisciplinary patient care discussions and team unity were preserved while maintaining social distance. During these virtual rounds, our pharmacist effectively made medication recommendations in order to ensure timely updates to patient care needs that required urgent intervention. This allowed our pharmacist and transplant coordinators to more efficiently work with the nurses and support staff onsite to schedule virtual patient education sessions. The COVID19 pandemic also required innovative means of continuing communication with our patients. SOT patients require thorough education on posttransplant medications and lifestyle choices. Our team transitioned these educational sessions to telemedicine education sessions. Meetings were arranged for the patients through institution owned iPads and caregivers could join the videoconference remotely. Before leaving the hospital, each of our patients received several hours of education with our pharmacist to assist their learning of medications, during which multiple teaching methods and tools were utilized. This communication method was also utilized for pretransplant patients when evaluating prior-to-admission medications and for readmitted patients to reinforce education. Several patients whose primary language was not English were also able to participate through multiprovider visits with simultaneous video interpretation. Other key members of our team including nurse practitioners transplant coordinators, and dieticians were able to learn from our pioneering experience and use this technology to safely and effectively communicate with our patients. SOT is a medical discipline that relies heavily on the collaboration of the interdisciplinary team. To maintain safety of our patients and team during the COVID-19 pandemic, we demonstrated ability to work together effectively in adapted roles. Through our innovative communication strategies, we have maintained exemplary patient care and outcomes. We will carry the lessons we learned through these challenges beyond the pandemic and continue to use them to ensure safe delivery of care. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.