Methods
Ethics statement
This study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (IRB Number: 104). Since this study was merely a retrospective review of the routine service that was put in place and data were gathered from existing documents based on routine work. Personal information was protected in the aggregated data.
Patients
A retro-prospective study was performed on the patients who were diagnosed of COVID-19 and received pharmaceutical care services at the Jianghan Fangcang Hospital, from February 5th, 2020 to March 10th, 2020. Patients who refused to fill in questionnaires and receive pharmaceutical care were not included in this study. The sample size was determined to be 349 patients.
Pharmaceutical care service
Besides the supplement of therapeutic drugs, clinical pharmacists also played important role for serving pharmaceutical care. Clinical pharmacist team explored the online pharmaceutical care service mode according to the special condition of the Fangcang hospitals, and provided remote pharmaceutical care services to patients, online pharmaceutical consultation and non-contact services mainly implement through WeChat® , so as to ensure one-on-one communication with the patients and solve their medication problems timely and effectively. Our pharmaceutical care plan including:
(1) A series of ”Rational Drug Use” science broadcasting programs were opened to introduce the common medical knowledge to patients, including medical instructions, drug usage, drug interactions and adverse drug reactions. The programs cover various aspects of treatment, including antiviral agents, antibacterial agents, traditional Chinese medicines, nutritious diet, post-discharge management, emotional regulation, etc.
(2)The WeChat® ID of ”clinical pharmacist in the Fangcang hospital” was established and actively publicized, so that patients in need of help could voluntarily contact clinical pharmacists by WeChat®, and fill in the ”self-reported questionnaire ”. Thus, the basic information about initial symptoms of COVID-19, basic comorbidities and their medication could be obtained by online consultation.
(3)Joined COVID-19 patients were required to acquire the first pharmaceutical care and follow-up visit within 24h of the next day, ensuring that all patients could timely obtain service.
(4)Clinical pharmacists were assigned to patients according to their disease conditions. WeChat® is used to provide 24-hour online ”one-to-one” pharmaceutical care, including providing indications, dosage, adverse drug reactions.
(5)Patients received follow-up visit after discharge to monitor their physical condition.
The inpatients’ questionnaire survey items
Each item was independently created by the clinical pharmacists taking into consideration of usual pharmaceutical care. The survey included patient basic information, initial symptoms of COVID-19, patient’s mental state, comorbidities, the medications including antivirals, antibiotics and other drugs, adverse drug reactions and so on. The questionnaire was administered to the patients before they received clinical pharmacist on-line service. Patients refused to service were excluded from this study.
Usefulness of the online pharmaceutical care service
Between February 5th and March 10th2020, the discharged patients’ questionnaire was administered to 78 patients who received pharmaceutical care service at the Jianghan Fangcang Hospital. The survey included the days for antiviral and antibiotic therapy, the usefulness of pharmacist care service on patients’ rational medication and mental situations, the satisfaction with clinical pharmacist service. Patients who did not received pharmacist service were excluded.