Florida health system looks back on COVID-19 challenges, successes.

Abstract

Nearly 2 years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the pharmacy team at Memorial Health System in Florida is looking back on challenges met and opportunities seized to better serve patients. “We really looked at opportunities for us to establish new pharmacy services to help us maintain the quality of care,” said Dovena Lazaridis, clinical pharmacy manager for population health and transitions pharmacy services. Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer Dorinda Segovia said the health system launched an outpatient telehealth pharmacy center in the early days of the pandemic to support education and transitional care for patients with complex conditions. One of the first things the pharmacy team learned through telehealth was that many patients were struggling to afford their medications. “Through the telehealth model, [we could] really talk with them and help with medication access. The team was really engaged in helping patients with coupons and issues with program enrollment,” Segovia...