The American College of Clinical Pharmacy Board of Regents has released an important commentary central to all practitioners providing direct patient care as well as to health care administrators, policy-makers, and regulators.
Direct patient care practice involves the pharmacist’s observation of the patient and his or her contributions to the selection, modification, and monitoring of patient-specific drug therapy. This is often accomplished within an interprofessional team or through collaborative practice with another health care provider.
Council on Credentialing in Pharmacy. Scope of contemporary pharmacy practice: roles, responsibilities, and functions of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.
The commentary, titled "Qualifications of Pharmacists Who Provide Direct Patient Care: Perspectives on the Need for Residency Training and Board Certification" and approved by the Board of Regents on February 6, 2013, clarifies the College's position on the desired qualifications and privileges of pharmacists who provide direct patient care as follows1:
Clinical pharmacists who engage in the direct observation and evaluation of the patient and his/her medication-related needs; the initiation, modification, or discontinuation of patient-specific pharmacotherapy; and the ongoing pharmacotherapeutic monitoring and follow-up of patients in collaboration with other health professionals, should possess the education, training, and experience necessary to function effectively, efficiently, and responsibly in this role. Therefore, ACCP believes that clinical pharmacists engaged in direct patient care should be board certified (or board eligible if a Board of Pharmacy Specialties [BPS] certification does not exist in their area of practice) and have established a valid collaborative drug therapy management (CDTM) agreement or have been formally granted clinical privileges by the medical staff or credentialing system within the health care environment in which they practice.
The commentary delineates the contemporary and future credentials necessary to ensure high-quality pharmacist services and patient outcomes. In addition, it provides a current perspective on the need for residency training and board certification, both of which were first addressed in two profession-changing ACCP papers published in 2006 and in an ACCP position statement on the board certification of pharmacist specialists put forth by the 2010 ACCP Board Certification Affairs Committee.2-4
Detailed in the commentary is the rationale for this position and a summary of the growing evidence for, and understanding of, system expectations of the credentials held by the clinical pharmacist providing direct patient care.
- Qualifications of pharmacists who provide direct patient care: perspectives on the need for residency training and board certification. Pharmacotherapy 2013. doi: 10.1002/phar.1285. Available at http://www.accp.com/docs/positions/commentaries/ACCP_Brd_Commntry_Final_030513.pdf. Accessed May 2, 2013.
- American College of Clinical Pharmacy’s vision of the future: postgraduate pharmacy residency training as a prerequisite for direct patient care practice. Pharmacotherapy 2006;26:722-33.
- Future clinical pharmacists should be board-certified specialists. Pharmacotherapy 2006;26:1816-25.
- Board certification of pharmacist specialists. Pharmacotherapy 2011;31:1146-9.