ABSTRACT
Adding pharmaceutical care services may sound time-consuming and labor intensive, but it is not. In this chapter we outline the steps you can follow to bring the kind of changes to pharmacy practice that make you an active, trusted partner in the management of patient care. While implementing these steps, you will also:
Keep lear
ning and growing in your work
Cr
eate more satisfying relationships with people in your workplace and community
Make mor
e money
In researching innovative pharmacy care, we found certain techniques and new ideas showing up again and again and thus developed the following set of seven guiding principles. These principles came out of work we did originally for the Concept Pharmacy project,
the
Her
culean collaborative effort of the NWDA and the APhA.* The project helped pharmacists and others understand the benefits of patientfocused care and highlighted the best practices of innovators in pharmacy from around the country. As part of this work we conducted a survey of practicing pharmacists who were incorporating pharmaceutical care into their professional lives, and from that work distilled their insights into seven guiding elements:
W
orkflow and facility design
Communication with physicians and patients
Documentation of practice interventions
Application of new technology
Marketing strategies
Education and training
Financial af
fairs
Not everyone we talked to addressed every one of these seven guiding principles to the same extent. We found these principles to be the collective keys that opened the doors to their ability to implement an active model of pharmaceutical care.
