June 02, 2026
Denise H. Rhoney, Pharm.D., FCCP, FNCS, MCCM
Unwritten: Putting Clinical Pharmacists at the Center of Patient Safety and Health Care Quality
As I have shared throughout this year, my presidential theme, Unwritten, reflects the idea that the story of clinical pharmacy, and our impact on preventable medication-related harm, is still being written. Each of us contributes a line, a paragraph, or sometimes an entire chapter to this story through our work, leadership, and commitment to improving patient care.
In my May ACCP Report column, I described the work of several ACCP Practice and Research Network (PRN) members as a mosaic of clinical pharmacist impact in preventing medication harm. Across practice areas and care settings, ACCP members are improving medication decisions, strengthening transitions of care, advancing evidence-based practice, educating colleagues and learners, and building tools that make care safer.
The challenge now is to make this work visible, shareable, and applicable beyond our own institutions and professional communities, including through initiatives such as the 2026 National Collaborative for Improving the Clinical Learning Environment (NCICLE) Patient Safety and Health Care Quality Resource Challenge. NCICLE focuses on improving both educational experiences and patient care outcomes within clinical learning environments, including hospitals, clinics, community-based practice sites, and other settings where learners, faculty, preceptors, patients, and interprofessional teams come together in the context of patient care.
The NCICLE Pathways to Excellence document reminds us that safe and high-quality patient care is driven by more than any single clinical decision alone. It is shaped by the learning environment itself. NCICLE organizes this work around patient safety, health care quality, teamwork, supervision, well-being, and professionalism. Each of these areas is deeply connected to the work of clinical pharmacists.
Medication safety is central to both patient safety and health care quality. Every medication decision has the potential to improve health or contribute to harm. Every transition of care creates an opportunity to clarify, reconcile, educate, and protect. Every protocol, dosing guideline, stewardship process, clinical decision support tool, quality improvement project, and interprofessional system has the potential to make care safer.
Participating in this challenge matters, especially now. Clinical learning environments are facing increasing complexity, including workforce strain, evolving technologies, medication access barriers, persistent inequities, public health threats, misinformation, and growing expectations for improved quality and safety. At the same time, students, residents, and other learners are forming their understanding of what safe, high-quality care looks like by observing what happens in practice. Clinical pharmacists are already central to improving medication use, reducing harm, and advancing quality. Our resources, models, and examples need to be visible where future clinicians are learning.
For ACCP members, the NCICLE Resource Challenge is more than a request for submissions. It is an opportunity to help others see how clinical pharmacists are already strengthening patient safety and health care quality. A resource need not be large or nationally known to matter. It need not be published in the medical literature. It only needs to be publicly available and connected to patient safety or health care quality.
A medication safety checklist, learner orientation activity, stewardship protocol, transitions-of-care workflow, simulation, podcast, quality metric, patient education resource, interprofessional training tool, or other type of teaching material may help another clinical learning environment improve care. No resource is too small if it helps make patient care safer.
I will continue to highlight the work of ACCP members, PRNs, committees, and practice sites in future ACCP Report columns because this work is broader than any single column can capture. I hope you will continue to send examples of what you are doing to prevent medication harm, improve patient safety, and advance health care quality. Part of our responsibility is to carry this work beyond our own walls so that patients, health systems, policymakers, educators, and other health care professionals can better understand what clinical pharmacists do.
Additional details about the 2026 NCICLE Resource Challenge, including submission expectations and the submission portal, are available here. Submissions are due September 30, 2026.1
Our story is still being written. By sharing the resources we use to improve medication safety, patient safety, and health care quality, ACCP members can help ensure that clinical pharmacists are recognized where they belong: at the center of safer, higher-quality care.
Reference
1. American College of Clinical Pharmacy. ACCP members invited to participate in the 2026 NCICLE Patient Safety and Health Care Quality Resource Challenge. ACCP Report. May 2026. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://www.accp.com/report/index.aspx?art=3965