The efficient role of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to combat coronavirus: HBKU press
- 3 years ago
An article, titled, Communicable Disease Center Pharmacy's prudent response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the State of Qatar, has been published in QScience.com’s open journal, QScience Connect. It highlights the effective and efficient role and the commitment made by the pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to combat coronavirus (Covid-19) in the country as the epidemic has affected many residents and citizens in Qatar.
The research was conducted by Dr Rania A Hassanin, supervisor, Outpatient Pharmacy at the Communicable Diseases Centre (CDC) of Hamad Medical Corporation, in coordination with Dr Fatima Rustom, pharmacy director at the CDC, and points outhow the retrospective analysis on the roles of these particular healthcare workers provides a key data as a part of the overall contribution of healthcare providers in containing the effect of the pandemic in Qatar.
“As preventative measures surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic are re-introduced due to a spike in cases, the research published on QScience.com provides insight on successful protocols implemented in the past by frontline healthcare sectors becomes increasingly important,” said Dr Rima J Isaifan, head of Academic and Journals Publishing, HBKU Press.
The research took place from March – October 2020 and the post-research analysis demonstrated how the pharmacy team at the CDC managed to plan, record, and implement a full strategy to maintain their critical healthcare service despite the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.
During those months, it was reported that the number of prescriptions increased from approximately 7,000 per month to approximately 22,000 per month. In addition to simply filling up prescriptions, the new inpatient workflow for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians established to maintain efficient infection control increased their overall workload by four times. The outpatient pharmacy also expanded its scope of service to manage all refill requests for Covid-19 cases in the 12 quarantine centres across Qatar. The Clinical Pharmacy Service established protocols within its team to raise awareness and provide education to prevent prescription errors.
The result of such an initiative by the CDC Pharmacy Team, along with the various efforts of multiple other healthcare sectors in HMC, was the containment of Covid-19 patient’s death rate. This resulted in the overall death rate in Qatar around 40% lower than the global rate.
The article also elaborates on the effective maintenance of pharmaceutical treatment plans for those individuals suffering from the diseases, coupled with the use of automated disinfecting and distribution services in collaboration with other stakeholders in clinical workflows, which allows life-saving medications to be provided to those who need it the most and are vulnerable.
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