Last October, I introduced you to my theme for this year: Medication Optimization Across the Care Continuum. The goal of my theme is to communicate the essential need for the standard of practice for clinical pharmacy to be consistent across all practice settings. As clinical pharmacists, we can all agree on the importance of medication optimization provided through comprehensive medication management (CMM), but how does this translate to our individual practice settings? Some may think CMM only falls to primary or ambulatory care clinical pharmacists. As a result, clinical pharmacy specialists may only be optimizing medications pertinent to their scope. We must challenge this thinking and accept the responsibility of comprehensive medication management in whatever patient populations and practice settings we find ourselves and, more importantly, wherever we encounter our patients.

My own practice in pain management routinely focuses on analgesic medications. But all medications need to be comprehensively reviewed and assessed for the intended patient outcomes. Are we meeting our patient-specific goals with all the medications the patient is prescribed? How does the analgesic regimen fit with the patient’s broader medical conditions and other medications?

As we look at the current and projected states of the opioid crisis, we can expect that more of our patients will have behavioral health issues. Chronic conditions such as pain, addiction, depression, and anxiety will increase in our patients together with other long-term diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. The medication regimens of these patients will be complex and fraught with interactions and adverse effects. Yet care of these patients can be optimized using a comprehensive, patient-centered, team-based approach. Indeed, communication and coordination with our colleagues in the community can tremendously influence patient adherence and outcomes.

ACCP continues its engagement with the Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network and the National Community Pharmacists Association Innovation Center. In this realm, pharmacists working in medical practices are collaborating with community pharmacists to leverage resources and information that will optimize patients’ medications and improve the quality of their care. Consensus guidance statements for successful collaborations across these settings have been drafted by the pharmacists involved in these projects. This year, several ACCP committees have been tasked with addressing issues related to medication optimization. Deliverables from these committees will help inform members about CMM best practices, novel approaches to CMM, and CMM dissemination strategies.

• Clinical Practice Affairs Committee A (Melissa Badowski, chair): Promoting strategies for providing CMM in the telehealth environment.
• Clinical Practice Affairs Committee B (Paul Stranges, chair): Outlining best practices in transitions of care with documented improved patient outcomes.
• Public and Professional Relations (Christopher Finch, chair): Communicating and disseminating the value of clinical pharmacists in achieving medication optimization.

The challenge before us is to ensure medication optimization for our patients and to initiate collaborations with community pharmacists involved in their care. I encourage PRN leaders to address this question through discussions on PRN e-mail lists and during PRN meetings. Look for examples of how members are engaged in successful collaborations and how we can share and learn from each other. Our patients will only benefit from this coordinated and comprehensive approach to care.