Saqr Hospital
The COVID-19 pandemic gives us the opportunity to challenge ourselves and discover our souls. As clinical pharmacists and antibiotic stewardship coordinators, we have the responsibility to ensure appropriate prescribing of antibiotic as well as adherence to national COVID-19 management guidelines, which are updated on frequent basis to match with latest available evidence from literature.
Additionally we have to answer drug information inquiries and provide remote clinical pharmacy service in critical care areas and inpatient wards, besides following antibiotic stewardship key performance indicators and updating policy and protocols.
We learned about new medications added to our healthcare system such as remdesivir, camostat, favipiravir and tocilizumab. And we learned a lot about how to manage complex cases with multiple comorbidities. The COVID-19 pandemic has helped us realize the importance of cooperation and harmonization between different individuals from different specialties to reach the best patient care journey.
Duaa Salem Jawhar, MsC., is a clinical pharmacist at Saqr Hospital, United Arab Emirates.
Posted July 29, 2020