Nirmatrelvir-ritonavir treatment of COVID-19 in a high-risk patient population: A retrospective observational study.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious, airborne viral infection that can infect anyone. Those with certain underlying conditions may be at higher risk for infection to develop into a severe disease requiring hospitalization. This report summarizes use of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir for the treatment of COVID-19 in high-risk patients at a single academic medical center through a pharmacist delegation protocol and demonstrates real-world efficacy and safety of treatment.

Primary care pharmacy technicians: Effect on pharmacist workload and patient access to clinical pharmacy services.

Purpose: Improve patient access to clinical pharmacy services and decrease pharmacist technical task workload in primary care (PC) clinics.

Summary: Due to concerns with the amount of technical tasks performed by University of Wisconsin Health PC clinical pharmacists negatively impacting their capacity to care for patients and perform clinical tasks, the pharmacy department piloted a new PC pharmacy technician role that involved completion of technical tasks previously performed by PC pharmacists. PC pharmacist daily technical and clinical activities were identified through shadowing and quantified by a 4-week period of work sampling.

Expansion and Evaluation of Pharmacist Services in Primary Care.

Challenges with primary care access and overextended providers present opportunities for pharmacists as patient care extenders for chronic disease management. The primary objective was to align primary care pharmacist services with organizational priorities and improve patient clinical outcomes. The secondary objective was to develop a technological strategy for service evaluation.

Inpatient pharmacists' patient referrals to a transitions-of-care pharmacist: Evaluation of an automated referral process.

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of a pharmacist screening and automated referral process that identifies patients at risk for readmission due to medication-related problems (MRPs).

Setting: University of Wisconsin (UW) Hospital is 505-bed flagship hospital that is part of UW Health, an academic health system.

Practice Description: The integrated pharmacy practice model at UW Health has inpatient pharmacists who perform discharge medication reconciliation.

Creation of a certification requirement for pharmacists in direct patient care roles.

Purpose: Steps taken by a large health system to require certification for all pharmacists in direct patient care roles are detailed.

Summary: Major supply chain changes and rising payer expectations are reshaping pharmacy practice, resulting in expanded responsibilities for pharmacists and a heightened need for certification in specialized practice areas. In response, the pharmacy leadership team at UW Health, the integrated health system of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, used an iterative process and a "rolling" FAQ format to develop and implement a certification requirement.