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.