Dataset Information

Selecting pharmacies for COVID-19 testing to ensure access.

ABSTRACT: Rapid diagnostic testing for COVID-19 is key to guiding social distancing orders and containing emerging disease clusters by contact tracing and isolation. However, communities throughout the US do not yet have adequate access to tests. Pharmacies are already engaged in testing, but there is capacity to greatly increase coverage. Using a facility location optimization model and willingness-to-travel estimates from US National Household Travel Survey data, we find that if COVID-19 testing became available in all US pharmacies, an estimated 94% of the US population would be willing to travel to obtain a test, if warranted. Whereas the largest chain provides high coverage in densely populated states, like Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut, independent pharmacies would be required for sufficient coverage in Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming. If only 1,000 ZIP code areas for pharmacies in the US are selected to provide testing, judicious selection, using our optimization model, provides estimated access to 29 million more people than selecting pharmacies simply based on population density.

SUBMITTER: Risanger S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7796853 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Selecting pharmacies for COVID-19 testing to ensure access.

Risanger Simon S Singh Bismark B Morton David D Meyers Lauren Ancel LA

Health care management science 20210110 2

Rapid diagnostic testing for COVID-19 is key to guiding social distancing orders and containing emerging disease clusters by contact tracing and isolation. However, communities throughout the US do not yet have adequate access to tests. Pharmacies are already engaged in testing, but there is capacity to greatly increase coverage. Using a facility location optimization model and willingness-to-travel estimates from US National Household Travel Survey data, we find that if COVID-19 testing became ...[more]

PMID: 33423180

Similar Datasets

Project description:BACKGROUND:There is a need for acceptable and feasible HIV testing options to ensure people living with HIV know their status so they can access care. Pharmacist-provided HIV point-of-care testing (POCT) may overcome testing barriers, including privacy concerns, testing wait times, and improve accessibility. In the APPROACH study, we aimed to develop and assess an HIV POCT program in community pharmacies for future scale up and evaluation. This paper describes the program uptake, participant and pharmacist experiences, and implementation factors. METHODS:A pharmacist-provided HIV POCT program was offered in 4 pharmacies in two Canadian provinces. A mixed methods design incorporated self-report questionnaire data, participant telephone interviews, pharmacist focus groups, workload analysis, and situational analysis to assess the uptake, acceptability and feasibility of the HIV POCT program. RESULTS:Over the 6-month pilot, 123 HIV tests were performed. One new case of HIV was identified; this participant was linked with confirmatory testing and HIV care. Participants were predominantly male (76%), with a mean age of 35 years. This was the first HIV test for 27% participants, and 75% were at moderate to very high risk of undiagnosed HIV infection, by Denver HIV Risk Score. Questionnaires and telephone interviews showed participants were very satisfied with the program; 99% agreed HIV POCT should be routinely offered in pharmacies and 78% were willing to pay for the service. Participants felt the pharmacy was convenient, discreet, and that the pharmacist was supportive and provided education about how to reduce their future risk. Pharmacists felt prepared, confident, and expressed professional satisfaction with offering HIV POCT. Community and public health supports, clear linkage to care plans to refer participants with positive HIV POCT results, and provision of counselling tools were important enabling factors for the program. Pharmacist remuneration, integration with existing healthcare systems, and support for ongoing promotion of HIV POCT availability in pharmacies were identified as needs for future scale-up and sustainability. CONCLUSIONS:A successful model of pharmacy-based POCT, including linkage to care, was developed. Further research is needed to determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of this approach in finding new diagnoses and linking them with care. TRIAL REGISTRATION:Retrospectively registered with clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03210701) on July 6, 2017.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Community pharmacies provide an important healthcare service, which is broadly established, and constitutes the preferred and initial contact for members of the community. The significant value of community pharmacies was further highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. OBJECTIVE:The assessment of community pharmacies preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS:A cross-sectional interview survey of 1018 community pharmacies working in four regions of Egypt (South, East, Centre, and North). Data collection was conducted from 8-19 April 2020. RESULTS:Availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medication was better than alcohol (70% conc.). Home delivery services were available in 49.1% of pharmacies. Infection control measures covering interactions between staff were in place in up to 99.5% of pharmacies. Conversely, there was less frequent availability of contactless payment (29.1%), hand sanitizers (62.1%) or masks (86.5%) for customer use, or a separate area for patients with suspected COVID-19 (64%). Verbal customer education (90.4%) was used preferably to written (81.3%). Despite high clinical knowledge and awareness (97.6%-99.2%), only 8.8% of pharmacists had reported suspected COVID-19 cases, however this varied significantly with pharmacist demographics (geographic region P < 0.001; pandemic training p < 0.001; position p = 0.019; age p = 0.046). CONCLUSIONS:Government and policymakers strive to mitigate the shortage of PPE and medication. More attention should be given to infection control measures around interactions between staff and customers to ensure community pharmacists are fit and able to provide continuity in their important role. Educating customers using regularly-updated posters, banners or signs will contribute to decreasing contact with patients, and reducing the number and duration of visits to the pharmacy. Pandemic preparedness of community pharmacists must also extend to reporting procedures. By avoiding under-reporting or over-reporting, community pharmacists will contribute to accurate monitoring of the national spread of infection.

Project description:BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic strained healthcare systems immensely as of 2020. Switzerland's hospital pharmacies' responses during the first wave were surveyed with a view to improving the quality of pharmaceutical management in future health crises.MethodsAn online survey was sent to the heads of all of Switzerland's hospital pharmacies. The questionnaire was organised into eleven sections of questions covering many topics regarding the management of COVID-19's first wave. Data collection occurred from May to June 2020.ResultsAnalyses were performed using the 43 questionnaires (66%), with at least one answer per questionnaire, out of 65 distributed. Seventeen of 41 pharmacies responding (41%) had existing standard operating procedures or pandemic plans and 95% of these (39/41) set up crisis management steering committees. Twenty-nine of 43 pharmacies responding (67%) created new activities to respond to the pandemic's specific needs. Twenty-six of 39 pharmacies responding (67%) created new drug lists for: COVID-19-specific treatments (85%; 22/26), sedatives (81%; 21/26), anaesthetics (77%; 20/26) and antibiotics (73%; 19/26). Drug availability in designated COVID-19 wards was managed by increasing existing stocks (54%; 22/41 pharmacies) and creating extra storage space (51%; 21/41). Two drugs generated the greatest concern about shortages: propofol (49%; 19/39 pharmacies) and midazolam (44%; 17/39). Remdesivir stocks ran out in 26% of pharmacies (10/39). Twelve of 43 pharmacies (28%) drafted specific new documents to respond to medical needs regarding drug administration, 12 (28%) did so for drug preparation and 10 (23%) did so for treatment choices.ConclusionsSwitzerland's hospital pharmacies encountered many challenges related to the COVID-19 crisis and had to find solutions quickly, effectively and safely. The survey highlighted the key role that hospital pharmacies played in many aspects of the pandemic by providing logistical and clinical support to medical and nursing care teams. The lessons and experiences outlined could be used to improve the quality of hospital pharmacies' readiness for similar future events.

Project description:An essential component of quality care for limited English proficient (LEP) patients is language access. Linguistically accessible medication instructions are particularly important, given the serious consequences of error and patient responsibility for managing often complex medication regimens on their own. Approximately 21 million people in the U.S. were LEP at the time of the 2000 census, representing a 50% increase since 1990. Little information is available on their access to comprehensible medication instructions. In an effort to address this knowledge gap, we conducted a telephone survey of 200 randomly selected NYC pharmacies. The primary focus of the survey was translation need, capacity, and practice. The majority of pharmacists reported that they had LEP patients daily (88.0%) and had the capacity to translate prescription labels (79.5%). Among pharmacies serving LEP patients on a daily basis, just 38.6% translated labels daily; 22.7% never translated. In multivariate analysis, pharmacy type (OR = 4.08, 95%CI = 1.55-10.74, independent versus chain pharmacies) and proportion of Spanish-speaking LEP persons in the pharmacy's census tract (OR = 1.09, 95%CI = 1.05-1.13 for each 1% increase in Spanish LEP population) were associated with increased label translation. Although 88.5% of the pharmacies had bilingual staff, less than half were pharmacists or pharmacy interns and thus qualified to provide medication counseling. More than 80% of the pharmacies surveyed lacked systematic methods for identifying linguistic needs and for informing patients of translation capabilities. Consistent with efforts to improve language access in other health care settings, the critical gap in language appropriate pharmacy services must be addressed to meet the needs of the nation's large and ever-growing immigrant communities. Pharmacists may require supplemental training on the need and resources for meeting the verbal and written language requirements of their LEP patients. Dispensing software with accurate translation capability and telephonic interpretation services should be utilized in pharmacies serving LEP patients. Pharmacists should post signs and make other efforts to inform patients about the language resources available to them.

Dataset Information

Selecting pharmacies for COVID-19 testing to ensure access.

Publications

Selecting pharmacies for COVID-19 testing to ensure access.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets