{"id":1058,"date":"2020-05-01T17:59:49","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T17:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/?p=1058"},"modified":"2020-05-01T17:59:49","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T17:59:49","slug":"helping-hands-providing-patient-care-via-telehealth-during-the-covid-19-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/2020\/05\/01\/helping-hands-providing-patient-care-via-telehealth-during-the-covid-19-outbreak\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping Hands: Providing Patient Care via Telehealth During the COVID-19 Outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written By:<\/strong> Olufunke Sokan, MPharm, PharmD,\u00a0Advanced Practice Pharmacist in the eHealth Center<\/p>\n

\n

Editor\u2019s Note:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>This post is part of a series of\u00a0<\/em>Helping Hands<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0stories authored by School of Pharmacy faculty, staff, students, trainees, and alumni who stepped up to assist their family and friends, colleagues, and communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/em><\/p>\n

In light of\u00a0the\u00a0ongoing\u00a0COVID-19\u00a0pandemic\u00a0and subsequent implementation of social distancing guidelines, health care providers, clinics, and health systems are increasingly adopting\u00a0the\u00a0use of telehealth technologies for continuation of care delivery.\u00a0The\u00a0School of Pharmacy\u2019s eHealth Center<\/strong><\/a> has been providing a broad range of clinical services to patients via telehealth since 2018, and is uniquely positioned to assist with the continuity of care.<\/p>\n

When the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) shifted to distance learning in March, clinical rotations for Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students were impacted. With expertise in providing clinical services via telehealth,\u00a0the\u00a0eHealth Center\u2019s pharmacists volunteered to provide a five-week telehealth learning experience for\u00a0the\u00a0students.<\/p>\n

As a pharmacist at\u00a0the\u00a0eHealth Center, four students were assigned to work with me on\u00a0the\u00a0Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) program<\/strong><\/a>, a transition of care program aimed at decreasing emergency department visits and hospital readmissions by providing care to patients in\u00a0the\u00a0comfort of\u00a0their homes post-hospitalization. A paramedic-nurse field team is supported by a multidisciplinary team that includes a pharmacist who is stationed in a remote location, but provides a medication management consultation via telehealth technologies. Not surprisingly,\u00a0the\u00a0students were apprehensive\u00a0coming\u00a0into\u00a0the\u00a0rotation.\u00a0They wondered if\u00a0they could have meaningful patient interactions via technology. To help address their concerns, I encouraged\u00a0the\u00a0students to chronicle\u00a0their five-week rotation, allowing them to later reflect on the impact of their experience.<\/p>\n

Below is an excerpt from fourth-year student pharmacist Tieu-Long Ton-Nu’s essay:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor my five-week rotation, I was a part of\u00a0the\u00a0MIH program. It was an honor to be a part of this program, because\u00a0it had already been utilizing telehealth long before others had started to embrace it in\u00a0the\u00a0midst of\u00a0the\u00a0pandemic. I participated in post-discharge follow ups with\u00a0the\u00a0MIH team via videoconferencing with patients. Although I was not physically with\u00a0the\u00a0patient, I could still perform many tasks that I would have done at a clinic, including conducting a medication reconciliation, counseling patients on\u00a0their medications, and addressing any concerns about\u00a0their medications.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAs with many technologies,\u00a0there are limitations. While I did not encounter technical difficulties with\u00a0the\u00a0audio or video, it was hard for me to gauge if patients were paying attention when I was speaking, as patients were not always within\u00a0the\u00a0frame\u00a0during\u00a0video calls. One of\u00a0the\u00a0patients I spoke to had difficulties getting her medications\u00a0during\u00a0the\u00a0pandemic. I was able to help connect her to a pharmacy to set up medication delivery. Another patient needed a refill on her inhaler, but her doctor\u2019s office was closed due to\u00a0COVID-19. I was able to contact one of her other doctors at\u00a0the\u00a0University of Maryland Medical Center to write a prescription for\u00a0the\u00a0patient.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Regardless of\u00a0the\u00a0environment, pharmacy students are in, they can still provide positive patient-centered care. I hope that all pharmacy schools will integrate telehealth into\u00a0their curriculum in\u00a0the\u00a0near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The School of Pharmacy’s eHealth Center offers an innovative rotation experience for pharmacy students during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":1060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,7,34],"tags":[350,308,309,87,352,56,311,353,351],"class_list":["post-1058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baltimore","category-community","category-practice","tag-cips","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-doctor-of-pharmacy","tag-ehealth-center","tag-experiential-learning-program","tag-helping-hands","tag-olufunke-sokan","tag-telehealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1058"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1072,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1058\/revisions\/1072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}