ACCP and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) have partnered to submit a petition to the Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS) seeking recognition of Emergency Medicine (EM) Pharmacy as a specialty, and BPS is seeking comments on this petition.

Six members served on the advisory panel for petition development, including one staff member and two member representatives from each organization. ACCP members Nicole M. Acquisto, Pharm.D., BCPS, and Megan E. Musselman, Pharm.D., M.S., BCPS, served as two of the experts involved in the petition development process beginning in January 2019, together with Kathy Pham, Pharm.D., BCPPS, ACCP director of Policy and Professional Affairs, as a staff member representative. Acquisto is the EM clinical pharmacy specialist and an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York. Musselman is an EM/critical care clinical pharmacy specialist at North Kansas City Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. ASHP members on the advisory panel included member experts Katelyn R. Dervay, Pharm.D., MPH, BCPS, and Christopher J. Edwards, Pharm.D., BCPS (both of whom also served on the BPS Emergency Medicine Practice Analysis Taskforce), together with Victoria Basalyga, Pharm.D., BCPS, BCPPS, as the ASHP staff representative.

The petition and access to comment submission can be viewed on the BPS website. Public comments must be submitted by December 22, 2019. BPS will consider the comments, together with the evidence presented by ACCP and ASHP, to determine whether the criteria for recognizing a new pharmacy specialty have been met.