Provision of pharmaceutical care to suspected high-risk COVID-19 patients through telehealth: a nationwide simulated patient study

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has overburdened the healthcare facilities, which demanded the use of alternative and effective methods for delivering healthcare services. The use of telehealth has become a necessity to provide initial health services. OBJECTIVE: To identify the pharmaceutical care provided by community pharmacists to suspected high-risk COVID-19 patients using telehealth. METHODS: A simulated patient (SP) phoned 100 randomly-selected community pharmacies throughout Lebanon using a standard scenario of uncontrolled diabetes mellitus with typical symptoms of COVID-19. Pharmacists’ responses were compared with pre-defined ideal recommendations using a special form. RESULTS: The mean of the retrieved medical information score obtained by the pharmacists was 2.48 ± 2.79 (out of 21), with 34 % of the participants not retrieving any relevant medical data from the SP. The relative patient information, the exposure to COVID-19, and the possible COVID-19 symptoms were not retrieved by 61 %, 70 %, and 41 % of the pharmacists, respectively. Two percent of the pharmacists assured that the SP’s symptoms were related to common cold, while 5 % confirmed that the SP is infected with COVID-19. Notably, 35 % of the pharmacists did not offer any recommendation. Among them, 14 % claimed that they were too busy to respond. Only 39 % of the pharmacists provided an appropriate recommendation by referring the SP to her physician to seek medical attention within 24 h since the SP is a high-risk patient, and 41 % recommended doing a PCR test. Antipyretics, antibiotics, and dietary supplements were recommended by 27 %, 7 %, and 16 % of the pharmacists, respectively. Less than 16 % of the pharmacists recommended using protective measures against COVID-19. In addition, the overall communication skills of the pharmacists were generally below expectations. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to assess the quality of pharmaceutical care provided by community pharmacists in the Middle East via Telehealth. An unsatisfactory level of preparedness through means of telehealth technology was evident. This resulted in the quality of pharmaceutical-care services provided to high-risk patients via telehealth to be below expectations. Therefore, health authorities should encourage community pharmacists to effectively adopt telehealth, by providing appropriate training, as well as recognizing their extra efforts with financial compensations, aiming to optimize patients’ health outcomes. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-021-07014-x.