Getting Started with Collaborative Practice Agreements

Charmaine Rochester-Eyeguokan, PharmD, BCACP, CDCES - University of Maryland School of Pharmacy - and Jeffrey Tingen, PharmD, MBA, BCPS, BCACP, CDCES - VCU Health, Department of Family Medicine & Population Health - talk to use about the ins and outs of collaborative practice agreements.

Key Lessons

• Collaborative practice is governed by state law and regulations; it is important to be familiar with the specific rules for constructing collaborative practice agreements (CPA) in your state.
• Many states require pharmacists to have specific training and experience in order to enter into a CPA - but some states have relatively few requirements or none at all.
• CPAs are useful tools to enable greater efficiency by granting the pharmacist greater autonomy to carry out certain patient care functions; however, a CPA is not required to perform many functions that are ordinarily a part of a pharmacist's scope of practice.
• It's important to have a significant level of rapport and trust with your providers crafting a CPA together.
• While CPAs are fairly common in ambulatory clinics, they are a potentially useful tool in community pharmacy practice, long-term care facilities, and specialty pharmacy practice.

To learn more about collaborative practice and CPA, check out the Collaborative Practice Resource Page on the iForumRx.org website.

Pharmacists Patient Care Process (III)

Kristina Butler, Pharm.D., BCPS, BCACP - Manager of Clinical Pharmacy Specialists in Primary at the Providence Medical Group in Portland, Oregon talks with us about implementing a consistent patient care practice model across multiple sites.

Key Lessons: Implementing a consistent model of care begins with hiring people who have the appropriate training & experience followed by a robust orientation process and supplemented by ongoing peer review; high-quality clinical pharmacy services need to be consistently available; more experienced practitioners may need to reframe their thinking and update their terminology in order to consistently teach learners about the pharmacists patient care process.

Helpful Resources:  Check out the Patient Care Process chapter in Pharmacotherapy: A Pathophysiologic Approach and the Patient Care Process for Delivering Comprehensive Medication Management report.

Pharmacists Patient Care Process (II)

Mary Ann Kliethermes, Pharm.D. - Professor and Vice Chair for Ambulatory Care in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at the Midwestern University Chicago College of Pharmacy talks with us about the business case for implementing the pharmacists patient care process.

Key Lessons: Using a reliably consistent process results in reliably consistent outcomes; health information systems require providers to use a consistent method of documentation; pharmacists patient care services will be billed within the existing payment framework and infrastructure; payment for services is contingent on the scope of practice (state pharmacy practice act!), provider status (at state level!), and insurance regulations (state laws!).

Helpful Resources:  Check out the Patient Care Process chapter in Pharmacotherapy: A Pathophysiologic Approach and the Patient Care Process for Delivering Comprehensive Medication Management report.

Pharmacists Patient Care Process (I)

Todd Sorensen, Pharm.D. - Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Care and Health Systems at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy and Executive Director of the Alliance for Integrated Medication Management talks with us about the importance of applying a systematic process of care during every patient encounter.

Key Lessons: All health professions have a similar process of care but each has a different focus and assessment strategy; inconsistencies in the process of care provided by pharmacists has led to inconsistent outcomes in clinical trials; several new resources are available to help pharmacy practitioners deliver the pharmacists patient care process with greater "fidelity."

Helpful Resources:  Check out the Patient Care Process chapter in Pharmacotherapy: A Pathophysiologic Approach and the Patient Care Process for Delivering Comprehensive Medication Management report.