Pharmaceutical care in hospitalized patients. (Management of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. A new challenge for pharmacy services).
During the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, pharmacy services have had to adapt their service portfolio, and yet ensure efficient, equitable and quality pharmaceutical care. Given the limited scientific evidence available, most drugs have been used off-label or in the context of clinical trials, which should be the preferred option in order to create new evidence. Among kind different situations we have faced are the increase in workload, the expansion of coverage to new wards and ICUs and shortages, which have caused the use of alternative drugs and even other routes of administration. Given that covid-19 affects elderly population with greater severity and many of them are polymedicated, great effort have been focused on monitoring interactions, both pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (specially prolongation of the QT interval), monitoring correct concentrations of electrolytes, nutritional support, adaptation of chemotherapy treatment protocols and anticoagulant management, among others. The use of personal protective equipment added difficulty for nursing work and some measures had been taken to minimize the number of entries into the rooms. Eventually, team's split to guarantee care, the challenge of teleworking, remote validation, telemedicine and telepharmacy for communication between professionals and patients, as well as training in this pandemic situation have been a challenge for our profession. These difficulties have risen up new learning opportunities we hope will be useful to us in the event we have to face similar situations in the future.
Daniel Sevilla-Sánchez, Montse Tuset-Creus