Introduction: Care bundles help healthcare professionals provide the best care possible in a structured and reliable way. The purpose of this study was to develop and apply an instrument for inpatient follow-up by clinical pharmacists, and evaluate its results. Methods:The care bundle was based on previously validated instruments. Population consisted of patients monitored by clinical pharmacists at a general hospital. The study was conducted in two phases: the first involved the development and implementation of the bundle, and the evaluation of pharmaceutical interventions; the second involved analyzing data from patients treated with the bundle over one year. Results:The bundle included fourteen pharmaceutical follow-up criteria used in different patterns by each area of care. In the first phase of the study, 3263 patients were monitored and 536 pharmaceutical interventions were performed, with an 85.3% compliance rate. In the second phase of the study, follow-up data was collected from 21,214 patients. The bundle criteria were used in a similar way in clinical, surgical and cancer patients. Pharmacotherapy review was the most prevalent intervention in all cases (60.1%). Hospital discharge planning and medication reconciliation were performed with a similar frequency in clinical, surgical, pediatric and general patients. Conclusions:The development and validation of a bundle aimed at guiding the clinical activities of pharmacists helped standardize procedures and interventions. Pharmacotherapy review was the bundle criterion with the highest rate of application and interventions due to the hospital's complexity and the need to consider individual patient needs and follow institutional policies.

Background Previous studies have demonstrated a beneficial effect of early use of corticosteroids in patients with COVID-19. This study aimed to compare hospitalized patients with COVID-19 who received short-course corticosteroid treatment with those who received prolonged-course corticosteroid treatment to determine whether prolonged use of corticosteroids improves clinical outcomes, including mortality. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study including adult patients with positive testing for Sars-CoV-2 hospitalized for more than 10 days. Data were obtained from electronic medical records. Patients were divided into two groups, according to the duration of treatment with corticosteroids: a short-course (10 days) and a prolonged-course (longer than 10 days) group. Inverse probability treatment weighting (IPTW) analysis was used to evaluate whether prolonged use of corticosteroids improved outcomes. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes were hospital infection and the association of different doses of corticosteroids with hospital mortality. Restricted cubic splines were used to assess the nonlinear association between mortality and dose and duration of corticosteroids use. Results We enrolled 1,539 patients with COVID-19. Among them, 1127 received corticosteroids for more than 10 days (prolonged-course group). The in-hospital mortality was higher in patients that received prolonged course corticosteroids (39.5% vs. 26%, p < 0.001). The IPTW revealed that prolonged use of corticosteroids significantly increased mortality [relative risk (RR) = 1.52, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.24–1.89]. In comparison to short course treatment, the cubic spline analysis showed an inverted U-shaped curve for mortality, with the highest risk associated with the prolonged use at 30 days (RR = 1.50, 95% CI 1.21–1.78). Conclusions Prolonged course of treatment with corticosteroids in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 was associated with higher mortality.