A strategy of providing outdoor medicine dispensing services for outpatients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

IF 2.4 Q3 PHARMACOLOGY & PHARMACY

Pharmacy Practice-Granada Pub Date : 2023-06-30 DOI:10.18549/pharmpract.2023.2.2724

Chu Hc, Chan Yl, Liou Jh, Chen Hm

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has created dramatic challenges for healthcare systems around the world, including Taiwan. At the end of January 2022, there were 17,951 confirmed cases and 851 deaths nationwide, while the COVID-19 vaccination coverage rate in Taiwan was only 80.8%, making it hard to defend against the quick mutation of the virus, which gave rise to variants, such as Omicron. Objective(s): To safeguard the rights of patients to receive medicines in a safe way, we offered three new pharmaceutical services, including an outdoor medicine dispensing refillable prescription service, telemedicine, and a queue management system. The purpose of this article is to share our successful experience and to investigate the impact of outdoor pharmaceutical services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: In order to provide patients with an outdoor medicine dispensing refillable prescription service and telemedicine service, prior arrangement through a booking system was required. Patients could obtain a queue ticket through a multi-media intelligent serving machine or the counter. We also relocated one of our counters from the pharmacy department to the front lobby during the morning peak hours. Then we gave surveys via paper questionnaires in 2020 and Google Forms in 2021 to confirm that the services were helpful. Results: A total of 24,248 person-times were recorded for chronic disease patients with refillable prescriptions visiting our hospital in 2020, compared with 14,134 person-times in 2021. For the queue management system, the total number of person-times in 2020 was 26,670, which relieved about a quarter of the waiting outpatient burden. Furthermore, use of telemedicine totaled 3,369 person-times. A high proportion (over 90%) of patients reported being satisfied with these services. Conclusions: The three new pharmaceutical services not only prevented patients from interrupting their medications during the epidemic period, but also reduced the risk of contagion. All three services provided outpatients with a safe and low-risk method of picking up their medications, and a high proportion of patients were satisfied with these services

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新型冠状病毒肺炎大流行期间为门诊患者提供室外配药服务的策略

背景:2019冠状病毒病大流行给包括台湾在内的世界各地的医疗保健系统带来了巨大挑战。截至2022年1月底，全国共有17951例确诊病例和851例死亡病例，而台湾的COVID-19疫苗接种率仅为80.8%，难以抵御病毒的快速突变，从而产生了诸如欧米克隆的变异。目标:为保障患者安全用药，我们推出了户外配药可续开处方服务、远程医疗、排队管理系统等三项药学新服务。本文的目的是分享我们的成功经验，并探讨在COVID-19大流行期间户外药品服务的影响。方法:通过预约系统进行预约，为患者提供室外配药可续处方服务和远程医疗服务。患者可通过多媒体智能服务机或柜台领取排队票。我们还在早高峰时段将药房的一个柜台搬到了前厅。然后我们在2020年通过纸质问卷进行调查，在2021年通过谷歌表格进行调查，以确认这些服务是有帮助的。结果:2020年我院慢性病可续处方患者就诊24248人次，2021年为14134人次。在排队管理系统方面，2020年总人次26670人次，缓解了约四分之一的门诊候诊负担。远程医疗使用人次3369人次。很高比例(超过90%)的患者报告对这些服务感到满意。结论:三种新型药品服务不仅可以防止患者在疫情期间中断用药，还可以降低感染风险。三项服务均为门诊患者提供了一种安全、低风险的取药方式，患者满意率较高

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来源期刊

Pharmacy Practice-Granada PHARMACOLOGY & PHARMACY-

CiteScore

3.90

自引率

4.00%

发文量

113

审稿时长

20 weeks

期刊介绍： Pharmacy Practice is a free full-text peer-reviewed journal with a scope on pharmacy practice. Pharmacy Practice is published quarterly. Pharmacy Practice does not charge and will never charge any publication fee or article processing charge (APC) to the authors. The current and future absence of any article processing charges (APCs) is signed in the MoU with the Center for Pharmacy Practice Innovation (CPPI) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Pharmacy. Pharmacy Practice is the consequence of the efforts of a number of colleagues from different Universities who belief in collaborative publishing: no one pays, no one receives. Although focusing on the practice of pharmacy, Pharmacy Practice covers a wide range of pharmacy activities, among them and not being comprehensive, clinical pharmacy, pharmaceutical care, social pharmacy, pharmacy education, process and outcome research, health promotion and education, health informatics, pharmacoepidemiology, etc.