Equitable and timely access to outpatient COVID-19 treatment: A review of centralized workflow implementation at an integrated health system.

Background: During the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care entities had to adapt to rapidly changing research and best practices in disease prevention and treatment to maintain the delivery of high-quality patient care. Prompt interdisciplinary efforts amongst physician, pharmacist, nursing, and information technology teammates are needed to develop robust centralized strategies to allocate and administer COVID-19 therapies in the ambulatory setting.

Objective: The objective of this analysis is to demonstrate the impact of a system-wide, centralized workflow on referral times and treatment outcomes for COVID-19 infected patients in the ambulatory setting.

Evidence-based smoking cessation interventions for patients with acute respiratory disorders.

Worldwide, tobacco use continues to be the most significant preventable cause of death and hospital admissions, particularly related to respiratory diseases. Acute respiratory illnesses requiring hospitalization provide an opportunity for nurses to intervene and help smokers quit. Of the three top hospital admissions related to respiratory diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the one that continues to have increased mortality whereas community acquired pneumonia and asthma have decreased over the past 5 years.

Evidence-based approach to an inpatient tobacco cessation protocol.

Tobacco use contributes to USD53 to USD73 billion per year in healthcare expenditures and causes nearly 440,000 deaths per year. Given the strong cause-effect relationship between smoking and poor health outcomes, it is critical that smokers are identified early and advised about smoking cessation. Furthermore, the Joint Commission now mandates that tobacco cessation advice be given to patients admitted with heart failure, pneumonia, and acute myocardial infarction.