Interventions and Impact of Pharmacist-Delivered Services for People Infected with COVID-19: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Pharmacists are essential members of the healthcare team. The emergence of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led pharmacists to undertake additional clinical roles. We aim to conduct a systematic review on the interventions and impact of pharmacist-delivered services in managing COVID-19 patients. We searched PubMed, Embase, Scopus, CINAHL plus, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, and Web of Science from 1 December 2019 (the first case of COVID-19 emerged) to 13 January 2022 to retrieve the articles. Cochrane handbook and PRISMA guidelines were followed respectively to perform and report the review. The pharmacist-led interventions were reported following the Descriptive Elements of Pharmacist Intervention Characterization Tool (DEPICT) version 2. The protocol of systematic review was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42021277128). Studies quality was assessed with the modified NOS scale. In total, 7 observational studies were identified from 10,838 studies. Identification of dosage errors (n = 6 studies), regimen modifications (n = 5), removal of obsolete/duplicate medications (n = 5), identification and management of adverse drug reactions (n = 4), drug interactions prevention (n = 2), and physicians acceptance rate (n = 3) of therapy-related services delivered in-person or via tele-pharmacy were among the pharmacist-delivered services. Common interventions delivered by pharmacists also included optimizing the use of antibacterial, antivirals, and anticoagulants in COVID-19 infected patients. The acceptance of pharmacist-delivered services by physicians was high (88.5–95.5%). Included studies have described pharmacists’ beneficial role in managing patients with COVID-19 including detection, resolution, and prevention of medication-related problems, with physicians demonstrating high trust in pharmacists’ advice. Future research should assess the feasibility and scalability of such roles in real-world settings.

Disaster Preparedness Amongst Emergency Pharmacists for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™: A Cross-Sectional Survey

“… 44–47 The beneficial influence of pharmacists has also been proven in emergent situation particularly the recent COVID-19 pandemic where pharmacists undertook additional clinical roles and initiated novel pandemic-driven services. 12 , 48 This proves that pharmacists are capable of expanding their pharmaceutical care activities in emergency situations and supports the efforts for embracing new roles for pharmacists. Hence, it is pivotal to involve the pharmacists in disaster management strategies to harness the full potential of their expertise.…”

Pharmacy faculty perspectives on Cultural Competence education in pharmacy schools

“…There is no doubt that topics in these three domains are highly related; to be able to address population needs, it is necessary, first, to recognise the impact of discrimination and social determinants of health in the target population. For example, when looking at the incidence and mortality of COVID-19 among racial and ethnic minorities (Van Dyke et al, 2021), including disparities in the outpatient treatment of COVID-19 (Boehmer et al, 2022) and the impact of mistrust in the healthcare system, low health literacy, and limited transportation services may have impacted timely access to screening, medications, hospital services, and vaccinations (Joynt Maddox et al, 2022;Maness et al, 2021), pharmacists will be able to develop programs and initiatives to address the needs of specific populations during and after the pandemic (Ahmed et al, 2022).…”