Clinical Pharmacists Demonstrate Value to Institutional Emergency Response

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ACCP member Donna Shuler Truoccolo, Pharm.D., BCPS, NHDP-BC, reports how members of the Emergency Medicine (EM) Pharmacy Team at University of Virginia (UVA) Health employed an interdisciplinary approach to adapt emergency bedside clinical pharmacist services and overcome challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Emergency response efforts determined to be at high risk of aerosolization were targeted early during the onset of the pandemic to identify special considerations for clinical pharmacists. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, the team established new clinical pharmacy standards during code events and implemented a redesign of the clinical pharmacist code coverage model to ensure continued services in the event of a patient surge. The EM Pharmacy Team, included as members of UVA Health’s COVID-19 Airway Support Team, developed efficient methods for rapid-sequence induction and intubation (RSI) medication delivery.

Joining Donna on the team were ACCP members Mary Lewis Griffin and Angela Holian; and Jamie Artale, Derek Burden, J. Nate Hedrick, Zachary Kirschner, Chris Shelton, and Ray Shi. By working with EM attending physicians, medical residents, nurses, and the UVA Interdisciplinary Resuscitation Committee, this collaboration reinforced further the value of clinical pharmacists as members of the healthcare team.