Pharmacy practice model for academic medical centers

The pharmacist’s role in health systems continues to evolve from a product-focused to a patient-centered care model that ensures the safe and effective use of medications in all practice settings. The best way to deploy pharmacists, technicians, and technology in support of the transition has been a major topic of discussion for many years. In 2007, the University Health-System Consortium (UHC) formed the UHC Pharmacy Council Executive Committee Pharmacy Practice Model Task Force to determine the pharmacy services that should be available to all patients in academic medical centers (AMCs) and to examine the evolving role of pharmacists in providing those services. This initiative is part of UHC’s role as a change catalyst for its members, an alliance of 107 AMCs and 234 of their affiliated hospitals representing approximately 90% of the nation’s nonprofit AMCs. The seven-member task force was formed to define pharmacy services that should be available to all patients in AMCs, identify recommended models of practice, and discuss the pros and cons of these models. One of the key activities of this effort was a reiterative process moving toward a consensus on, and a commitment to, a set of minimum standards applicable to the delivery of pharmacy services. Task force members had three goals: (1) to introduce a level of services that all academic hospital pharmacies should provide for patients and to foster the recognition that there are some patients who require more intensive services because of the complexity of their drug therapy, (2) to provide a means by which pharmacy directors can secure the resources needed to reach that level, and (3) to provide case studies of the development, implementation, outcomes, and continuing progress of pharmacy practice models at member AMCs striving for that level.