BACKGROUND: As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the United States, America's pharmacists and their teammates expanded their clinical services to help their communities from every practice setting: community and ambulatory care, inpatient, long-term care, academia, public health, and many others. OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study is to begin to quantify contributions of U.S. pharmacists in providing clinical interventions that mitigate and control the pandemic. These interventions span the gamut of diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and support, intervening patient by patient with vaccines, diagnostic tests, convalescent plasma, monoclonal antibodies, antiviral medications, and supportive therapies. METHODS: Review of published literature, relevant web pages, and queries to national and state professional pharmacy associations and government agencies. RESULTS: From February 2020 through September 2022, pharmacists and their teammates conducted >42 million COVID-19 tests, provided >270 million vaccinations (including 8.1 million COVID-19 vaccinations for long-term care residents) within community pharmacy programs alone, and provided >50 million influenza and other vaccinations per year. Pharmacists plausibly accounted for >50% of COVID-19 vaccinations in the United States. Pharmacists prescribed, dispensed, and administered an uncounted number of antibody products and antiviral medications, including care for 5.4 million inpatients and innumerable outpatients. Using conservative estimates, pandemic interventions by pharmacists and teammates averted >1 million deaths, >8 million hospitalizations, and $450 billion in health care costs. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacists and their teammates contributed to America's health and recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing >350 million clinical interventions to >150 million people in the form of testing, parenteral antibodies, vaccinations, antiviral therapies, and inpatient care. The number of lives touched and people cared for by pharmacists continues to rise.
BACKGROUND: As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the United States, America's pharmacists and their teammates expanded their clinical services to help their communities from every practice setting: community and ambulatory care, inpatient, long-term care, academia, public health, and many others. OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study is to begin to quantify contributions of U.S. pharmacists in providing clinical interventions that mitigate and control the pandemic. These interventions span the gamut of diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and support, intervening patient by patient with vaccines, diagnostic tests, convalescent plasma, monoclonal antibodies, antiviral medications, and supportive therapies. METHODS: Review of published literature, relevant web pages, and queries to national and state professional pharmacy associations and government agencies. RESULTS: From February 2020 through September 2022, pharmacists and their teammates conducted >42 million COVID-19 tests, provided >270 million vaccinations (including 8.1 million COVID-19 vaccinations for long-term care residents) within community pharmacy programs alone, and provided >50 million influenza and other vaccinations per year. Pharmacists plausibly accounted for >50% of COVID-19 vaccinations in the United States. Pharmacists prescribed, dispensed, and administered an uncounted number of antibody products and antiviral medications, including care for 5.4 million inpatients and innumerable outpatients. Using conservative estimates, pandemic interventions by pharmacists and teammates averted >1 million deaths, >8 million hospitalizations, and $450 billion in health care costs. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacists and their teammates contributed to America's health and recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing >350 million clinical interventions to >150 million people in the form of testing, parenteral antibodies, vaccinations, antiviral therapies, and inpatient care. The number of lives touched and people cared for by pharmacists continues to rise.
Authors: Evan M Bloch; Shmuel Shoham; Arturo Casadevall; Bruce S Sachais; Beth Shaz; Jeffrey L Winters; Camille van Buskirk; Brenda J Grossman; Michael Joyner; Jeffrey P Henderson; Andrew Pekosz; Bryan Lau; Amy Wesolowski; Louis Katz; Hua Shan; Paul G Auwaerter; David Thomas; David J Sullivan; Nigel Paneth; Eric Gehrie; Steven Spitalnik; Eldad A Hod; Lewis Pollack; Wayne T Nicholson; Liise-Anne Pirofski; Jeffrey A Bailey; Aaron Ar Tobian Journal: J Clin Invest Date: 2020-06-01 Impact factor: 14.808
Authors: Vibhu Paudyal; Cathal Cadogan; Daniela Fialová; Martin C Henman; Ankie Hazen; Betul Okuyan; Monika Lutters; Derek Stewart Journal: Res Social Adm Pharm Date: 2020-11-30
Authors: Robert B MacArthur; Ohad S Bentur; Ian C MacArthur; Anna S Bartoo; Donna L Capozzi; Jason A Christensen; Amber L Johnson; Kuldip Patel; Barry S Coller Journal: J Clin Transl Sci Date: 2021-02-18
Authors: William R Mills; Stephen M Creasy; Susan Sender; Joseph Lichtefeld; Nicholas Romano; Karen Reynolds; Melissa Price; Jennifer Phipps; Leigh White; Shauen Howard Journal: J Am Med Dir Assoc Date: 2020-06-10 Impact factor: 4.669
Authors: Christine Kim; Randy Yee; Roma Bhatkoti; David Carranza; Danielle Henderson; Sachiko A Kuwabara; James Phillip Trinidad; Sandra Radesky; Allen Cohen; Tara M Vogt; Zachary Smith; Chris Duggar; Kevin Chatham-Stephens; Christina Ottis; Krista Rand; Travis Lim; Alice F Jackson; Donald Richardson; Aaron Jaffe; Rachael Lubitz; Ryan Hayes; Aran Zouela; Deborah L Kotulich; Patrick N Kelleher; Angela Guo; Satish K Pillai; Anita Patel Journal: MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep Date: 2022-03-11 Impact factor: 17.586