The Second Wave of COVID-19: Clinical Pharmacy Services During a Field Hospital Operation.

Jessica Mazzone,Neil Gilchrist,Krysta Shannon,Richard Rovelli,Angel Amaral,Racha Kabbani

doi:10.1177/00185787211032361

Jessica Mazzone, Neil Gilchrist + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/00185787211032361

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Abstract

The second wave of COVID-19 emerged in the late fall months in the state of Massachusetts and inadvertently caused a rise in the number of cases requiring hospitalization. With a field hospital previously opened in central Massachusetts during the Spring of 2020, the governor decided to reimplement the field hospital. Although operations were effectively accomplished during the first wave, the reimplementation of the field hospital came with its new set of challenges for operating a satellite pharmacy. Experiences gathered include new pharmacy operation workflows, the clinical role of pharmacy services, introduction of remdesivir treatment, and pharmacy involvement in newly diagnosed diabetes patients requiring insulin teaching. Pharmacy services were successful in adapting to the rapidly growing number in patients with a total of over 600 patients served in a course of 2 months.

Highlights

In the fall of 2020, publicly reported data indicated that COVID-19 cases were intensifying in the state of Massachusetts
The trends of increased mortality in COVID-19 patients with diabetes prompted pharmacists at the field hospital to review all patients with diabetes to ensure they were being managed according to current guidelines.[22]
Other comorbid disease states are associated with increased mortality in COVID-19,31 we focused our interventions on diabetic patients because delays in discharge due to diabetes teaching were observed prompting provider inquiry regarding pharmacy involvement in this process

Summary

Introduction

In the fall of 2020, publicly reported data indicated that COVID-19 cases were intensifying in the state of Massachusetts. Potential drug errors provide opportunities for pharmacist intervention, with rates of recommendation acceptance approaching 90%.9 pharmacist presence on multidisciplinary patient rounds has been shown to significantly reduce patient hospital length of stay and incidence of unplanned readmissions.[10,11] Outcomes including 14-day readmission rates, 30-day readmission rates, and incidence of medication discrepancies in patients receiving pharmacist intervention (n = 358) were compared to controls (n = 366).

Results

Conclusion