A Retrospective Review of COVID-19 Medicines Information Queries in a Quaternary Hospital with Unique COVID-19 Border Controls

Abstract

Background: Medicines information (MI) is a specialist area of pharmacy that provides evidence-based answers to often complex medication queries, utilising resources such as textbooks and databases. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a need to change the way COVID-19-related queries were answered due to the rapid evolution of information on vaccination, treatment and prevention. Methods: Medicines information queries were retrospectively reviewed utilising the centre’s medicines information database from January 2020 through December 2022 using the COVID-19 keyword to retrieve relevant queries. Information was collected on the enquirer’s role, query category, time taken to complete the query, relevant keywords and references accessed. Keywords and references were analysed further to determine the types of queries asked and which references were helpful. Results: The centre received 214 COVID-19-related queries, predominantly in 2022. Most queries were from pharmacy staff (95.8%) and related to vaccination (n = 95, 44.4%) or treatment (n = 87, 40.7%). Government and specialist organisation websites were used most commonly as reference sources (24.6% and 16.5%, respectively) for their currency with COVID-19-specific resources (such as national guidelines, COVID-19 treatment interaction checkers) and textbooks/databases used less commonly. Conclusions: MI pharmacists have demonstrated their ability to obtain reliable COVID-19-related information, utilising and interpreting information from less traditional sources.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• medicines information
• drug information
• pharmacists
• pandemic
• public health