Clinical Pharmacist-Led Medication Review In Hospitalized Confirmed Or Probable Patients With COVID-19 During The First Wave Of Covid-19 Pandemic

INTRODUCTION: Drug-related problems result in serious problems among hospitalized patients and high rate of morbidity and mortality, and increased healthcare costs. It is aimed to identify drug-related problems by clinical pharmacist-led medication review in hospitalized probable patients with COVID-19 during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic.
METHODS: This retrospective observational study was conducted at COVID-19 inpatient services of a tertiary university hospital in Turkey for 3 months (between March 2020 and June 2020) and included hospitalized confirmed or probable COVID-19 patients. World Health Organization (WHO) and Turkish Ministry of Health Guidelines case definitions were used to define confirmed and probable COVID-19 patients. Six clinical pharmacy residents provided medication review service during their education and training. Drug-related problems were classified based on Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe (PCNE) V9.00. The physician’s acceptance rate of clinical pharmacists’ recommendations was assessed.
RESULTS: Among 202 hospitalized patients with probable or confirmed COVID-19, 132 patients (65.3%) had at least one drug-related problem. Two hundred sixty-four drug-related problems were identified. Drug selection (85.6%) and dose selection (9.2%) were the most common causes of these problems. Among the 80 clinical pharmacist interventions, 48.8% were accepted by the physicians.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Clinical Pharmacists have identified a significant number of DRPs during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly those related to drug interactions and drug safety such as ADRs. This study highlights the importance of detecting and responding to DRPs in the COVID-19 pandemic.