Optimising remote consultations for older people during COVID‐19

Abstract

T his article has been written from a pharmacist's perspective, but the principles are applicable to any healthcare professional undertaking a medication consultation. Prior to COVID-19, consultations for older people living with frailty were routinely delivered 'face to face' in a home setting or outpatient clinic. Health and social care professionals moved between locations, guided by local pathways of care. This became the accepted practice for delivery of care, where the benefit of seeing the person face to face far outweighed the risks. The global COVID-19 pandemic has provided us with a unique opportunity to stop and evaluate our methods when delivering care in all settings. There has been a seismic shift, where the immediate risk of acute harm from face-to-face visits for the older or vulnerable patient can greatly outweigh the benefits. This has necessitated creative thinking and the need to re-engineer customary practices, but it has also given us a golden opportunity to evaluate the rationale for our previous practice. We believe that there has been an ingrained bias towards face-to-face consultations as the preferred mode of delivery, causing us to unconsciously dismiss alternative ways to deliver meaningful consultations. Patients and clinicians alike have undergone a revolution in their beliefs when undertaking consultations. Remote consultation-by phone and, increasingly, using video-are the 'new normal' and are providing effective care for the majority of people able to use these services. 1 However, there is a paucity of information about the use of remote consultation for medication review. This is not a 'one size fits all'. People with physical, mental and cognitive challenges, such as older people living with frailty

Home Drug Delivery Service from the Perspective of Community Pharmacy Staff in Saudi Arabia

“…The majority of the surveyed community pharmacists (91%) agreed that proper and necessary consultation could be done remotely. This result matched with many published articles that approved both the importance and the success of remote consultation, especially in pandemic situations like COVID-19, where the most precautionary measures should be taken [18][19][20]. Moreover, 81% of the surveyed pharmacists agreed that home delivery services would largely replace the old tradition of going in person to a pharmacy to receive or refill the prescribed medications.…”

Acceptability of, and preferences for, remote consulting during COVID-19 among older patients with two common long-term musculoskeletal conditions: findings from three qualitative studies and recommendations for practice

“…Whilst remote consultations offer many potential advantages to patients and healthcare services, they are unlikely to be suitable for all [ 3 ]. Older adults living with frailty or those managing daily challenges with sight, cognitive, hearing or mobility impairment, may face additional barriers to engage with remote consultations [ 4 ]. A move to remote consulting by default [ 5 ] therefore has potential to increase digital exclusion for older adults [ 6 ].…”