COVID-19 Patients’ Medication Management during Transition of Care from Hospital to Virtual Care: A Cross-Sectional Survey and Audit
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Edmunds, Catherine
Buksh, Saberina
Cronin, Sean
Gillespie, Brigid M
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Background: Virtual models of care were implemented to ease hospital bed pressure during COVID-19. We evaluated the medication management of COVID-19 patients transferred to virtual models of care. Method: A retrospective audit of COVID-19 patients transferred from inpatient units to virtual care during January 2022 and surveys from patients transferred during December 2021–February 2022 was carried out. Results: One hundred patients were randomly selected: mean age 59 years (SD: 19.8), mean number of medicines at admission 4.3 (SD: 4.03), mean length of virtual ward stay 4.4 days (SD: 2.1). Pharmacists reviewed 43% (43/100) of patients’ medications during their hospital stay and provided 29% (29/100) with discharge medicine lists at transfer. Ninety-two (92%) patients were prescribed at least one new high-risk medicine whilst in hospital, but this was not a factor considered to receive a pharmacist medication review. Forty patients (40%) were discharged on newly commenced high-risk medicines, and this was also not a factor in receiving a pharmacist discharge medication list. In total, 25% of patient surveys (96/378) were returned: 70% (66/96) reported adequate medicine information at transfer and 55% (52/96) during the virtual model period. Conclusion: Patient survey data show overall positive experiences of medication management and support. Audit data highlight gaps in medication management during the transfer to a virtual model, highlighting the need for patient prioritisation.
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Pharmacy
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11
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5
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© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences
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Hattingh, HL; Edmunds, C; Buksh, S; Cronin, S; Gillespie, BM, COVID-19 Patients’ Medication Management during Transition of Care from Hospital to Virtual Care: A Cross-Sectional Survey and Audit, Pharmacy, 2023,11 (5), pp. 157