Medication Safety Update During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic and the response of the healthcare system initiates some challenges associated with some of medication shortages and needs of changes on the medication management workflow, additional evidence base associated with the pharmaceutical treatment of COVID-19 complications, and limited availability of personal protective equipment (PPE).the use of automated dispensing cabinets (ADCs). Including Accessing the ADC by using hygiene before and after touching any machine . In some organizations; they disable the fingerprint for users who might be wearing gloves and activate retinal scanning or entry of a username and password until biometric fingerprint identification can resume. If clean gloves are used when accessing the cabinet, they should be discarded before leaving the location, and use hand’s hygiene and store a container of the appropriate cleaning disinfectant nearby to allow those accessing the ADC to disinfect common touched points minimize the risk of contamination, the medications that already removed from the ADC shall not be returned to the specific bin or pocket from which they came. A common secure, oneway return bin should be used for returning unadministered medications to the pharmacy (including controlled substances).Maintaining safe practices in a case of requiring a documented witness, independent double check by another practitioner is a must when removing certain facility-defined high-alert medications from an unprofiled ADC or via override (bypassing the pharmacist’s review of a medication order to obtain a medication from the ADC when assessment of the patient indicates that a delay in therapy would harm the patient) and use ADC dispensing alerts to provide practitioners with critical information about new or unfamiliar medications given that many practitioners may be working outside their normal clinical practice area.hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine : the FDA is aware of reports of serious heart rhythm problems in patients with COVID-19 treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, often in combination with azithromycin and other QT prolonging medicines. We are also aware of increased usage of these medicines through outpatient prescriptions