Challenges and Best Practices

Jillian Foster
System Pharmacy Service Line Administrator, Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation

I am sharing lessons learned and some of the issues we have faced in these past weeks. I really hope this is helpful for those not yet impacted or minimally impacted by the coronavirus.

Challenges

There is so little evidence on any of the medications. Trying to decide which medication order specifics to build out in Epic. We have decided on hydroxychloroquine only for now. Many discussions and meetings are happening to see if we have system consensus to build out and /or promote others like zinc, statins, etc.

Best Practice

If a patient needs respiratory treatment and are suspected or positive Covid, we want them to use an MDI not nebulizers to limit the spread. MDIs are running short. We are struggling to get the word out and balance:

• If patient is not wheezing or having symptoms, don’t use either
• If patient is not Covid, still use nebulizers and reserve MDIs

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. Assumptions made in the analysis are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author(s). These views are always subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time and may not be held in perpetuity.