Farmacia hospitalaria : órgano oficial de expresión científica de la Sociedad Española de Farmacia Hospitalaria
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The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating effect on the nursing homes for dependent older people. The difficulty of management of this crisis is aggravated by the frailty of the people served and by the specific characteristics of the care area, mainly the fact of not being integrated into the health system. The objective of this work is to describe the pharmaceutical care developed by a hospital pharmacy service established in a nursing home and, from a more global perspective, analyze the strengths and weaknesses found from the various experiences of hospital pharmacy in all spanish autonomous communities to deal with this pandemic. Specialized pharmaceutical care has provided rigor in the validation and treatments review processes from a comprehensive perspective, maximizing safety and collaborating in the establishment of the therapeutic intensity degree most appropriate to the individual situation, has ensured the availability of all necessary medications, has collaborated in the acquisition and management of personal protective equipment, has been able to adapt the dispensation processes to the internal nursing homes sectorization and has facilitated the coordination between the nursing home and the health system. It is clear that the crisis casued by COVID- 19 has put relevance of the need to integrate the social-health level into the health system. And also, the contribution of specialized pharmaceutical care in improving healthcare coverage and coordination with health services has highlighted the urgency of developing the current legislation, prioritizing the establishment of pharmacy services able to provid specialized and specific care for this area, so that it meets healthcare needs and is integrated into the health system.
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The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the University Hospital of Fuenlabrada was forced to critically increase its capacity in the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of this work is to describe the activities promoted by the pharmacist in the care of the critically ill patient in this context. A new organizational structure was designed, analyzing the tasks necessary to make the processes profitable. Two pharmacists joined the critical patient care to help the pharmacist who was already integrated in the ICU team. The development of the operational structure was carried out on three levels. The healthcare activity highlights the daily participation of pharmacists in the two clinical sessions in which the ICU teams evaluated all cases and made decisions. This in turn facilitated the pharmaceutical validation that was carried out in the critical units themselves. ⋯ In knowledge management, the participation of the pharmacist in the working group for the development of the hospital management protocol COVID-19 stands out. The daily presence in the unit and the joint work with the entire multidisciplinary team demonstrate the value that the pharmacist can bring. In addition to efficient resource management, support for clinical decision-making and improvement actions, it provides the climate of inter-professional trust necessary to respond to the complexity of the critical patient and promote joint projects.
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The purpose of this article is to report the experience of the Department of Hospital Pharmacy of a mid-size hospital during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The human and material resources available in a mid-size hospital were more limited than in larger hospitals of the region. In this article, we describe how this Department of Hospital Pharmacy was reorganized to meet the increase in activity, the strategies developed and the lessons learned for future pandemics. The COVID-19 pandemic had a higher impact in Leganes, a city in the south of Madrid, with a population of 190,000. In the face of the dramatic increase in the proportion of patients attending our hospital between March and April 2020, the Severo Ochoa University Hospital increased the number of beds by 24.5% and fitted out new premises inside and outside the hospital (sports centers). ⋯ This Department has been able to reorganize its processes and take over new responsibilities such as telepharmacy and home dispensing. Hospital pharmacies play a crucial role in pharmacotherapeutic decisions in hospitals. As in other Departments, training is the area more significantly affected by the pandemic.
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Type 2 coronavirus pandemics that is plaguing almost all the world has caused qualitative and quantitative strains in health systems that have had to be responded to. The lack of known vaccines and effective treatments has generated the need to use drugs with very little evidence for their incorporation into pharmacotherapeutic protocols agreed by the clinical team. The hospital pharmacist, within the multidisciplinary team, has been responsible for critically evaluating the alternatives and positioning them in these protocols. Finally, some ethical and legal questions that should be considered in this scenario are analyzed in this article.
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The WHO declared the SARS- CoV-2 outbreak a pandemic in March 11, 2020. Spain has been the third country with the highest number of reported cases of COVID-19. In the face of the pandemic, the authorities of the Autonomous Community of Madrid led an unprecedented transformation of hospital services by increasing the number of beds available, setting up temporary field hospitals in fairgrounds, and transforming hotels into support centers for patients with mild symptoms of COVID-19. In the light that this crisis will continue to be a real threat for the years to come, our hospital pharmacies need to be better prepared for similar outbreaks in the future. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Hospital Pharmacy of Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón has faced four challenges: an exponential increase in the demand for resources, constant changes to therapeutic protocols and approaches, regulatory changes, and a dramatic impact on hospital staff (strain on human resources and psychological impact). This article is aimed at describing the main organizational changes implemented to the Department of Hospital Pharmacy of Hospital GU Gregorio Marañón and its relationship with other hospital pharmacies of the Community of Madrid. ⋯ People, patients and professionals are at the core of these strategies. This paper is a reflection on key factors of "humanization in COVID times".