The second wave of COVID-19 emerged in the late fall months in the state of Massachusetts and inadvertently caused a rise in the number of cases requiring hospitalization. With a field hospital previously opened in central Massachusetts during the Spring of 2020, the governor decided to reimplement the field hospital. Although operations were effectively accomplished during the first wave, the reimplementation of the field hospital came with its new set of challenges for operating a satellite pharmacy. Experiences gathered include new pharmacy operation workflows, the clinical role of pharmacy services, introduction of remdesivir treatment, and pharmacy involvement in newly diagnosed diabetes patients requiring insulin teaching. Pharmacy services were successful in adapting to the rapidly growing number in patients with a total of over 600 patients served in a course of 2 months.

In the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the large number of cases of severe respiratory distress placed a significant burden on US healthcare systems. In Massachusetts, predictive modeling indicated that up to 15,000 hospital beds would be required to handle the case surge (prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Massachusetts hospitals had a total of 11,000 licensed beds). This modeling suggested there would be a 4,000-bed shortage during the peak of hospitalizations for COVID-19, which was expected to occur within the first few weeks of April. Thus, mitigation strategies were developed to increase healthcare capacity. One of Massachusetts’ strategies entailed the development and utilization of field hospitals. On April 2, 2020, it was announced that a convention center in Worcester, MA, would be the location of the state’s first field hospital (FH). Through the collaboration of the US Army National Guard company based in Worcester and UMass Memorial Medical Center (UMMMC), the FH was quickly established. It was determined that on-site pharmacy services would be imperative to ensure that FH patients received optimal care.