Care of critically ill patients requires an interprofessional team. An interdisciplinary panel of 21 experts developed consensus recommendations to provide guidance for individual pharmacists, institutions, and standard-setting bodies regarding best practices for the team integration of critical care pharmacists. According to Stuart T. Haines, Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (JACCP) editor-in-chief,
Consensus statements are important contributions to the literature because they address questions that cannot be easily answered by empirical studies or when high-quality research is too challenging to conduct. There are many areas of clinical pharmacy practice that simply don’t have clear answers but where expert consensus can provide us helpful guidance. Moreover, they identify issues and challenges that warrant our attention to enhance the quality of our patient care work.
Andrea Sikora, Pharm.D., FCCP, FCCM, BCCCP, led a team of 21 critical care experts, including 3 physicians, 1 nurse, and 14 members of ACCP. The ACCP Critical Care PRN also provided significant input on perceptions and priorities regarding critical care practice. The final manuscript provides implementation guidance on integrating critical care pharmacists into the ICU team, with the goal of improving outcomes for patients and other stakeholders. “This paper provides not only a set of key recommendations regarding the integration of critical care pharmacists as key members of the health care team,” stated Haines, “but also qualitative and quantitative metrics that are important indicators of the value they bring to patient care.”
The recommendations are published open access in JACCP and endorsed by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, ACCP, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Institute for Safe Medication Practices, and Society of Critical Care Medicine. Download the recommendations here. JACCP is seeking proposals for additional consensus recommendations to guide clinical pharmacy practice. Proposals are due January 15, 2026.