AS HEALTHCARE REFORM EVOLVES and providers are held to higher standards of quality and improved patient outcomes, more physicians and health systems are turning to the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) to offer comprehensive, cost-effective care. At Advocate Medical Group, a subsidiary of the Advocate Health System in Chicago, administrators recognized the value pharmacists can bring [...]

A GOOD STRATEGIC PLAN allows us to map our future with a clear course to success. In January of this year, the ASHP Board of Directors approved a new comprehensive Strategic Plan. This plan is a significant departure from the Leadership Agenda that it replaces because it includes and integrates all ASHP activities and operations. [...]

THE PEOPLE WHO ARRIVED in the emergency department on April 15, 2013, had injuries unlike any Nancy Balch had seen in her 12 years as an emergency department pharmacist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Their injuries were severe. At least one person had had a limb blown off. “I’ve seen a lot, unfortunately,” she [...]

ON THE HEELS of ASHP’s Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative Summit in 2010, Cleveland Clinic Florida (CCF) set the goal of giving all patients at the 155-bed academic institution the opportunity to interact with pharmacists as part of their care. It was a lofty goal, one that would stretch the pharmacy department’s staff and resources. In [...]

DIABETES MANAGEMENT can be tricky, especially for patients who have been diagnosed and prescribed oral agents or insulin to help them control their blood glucose. Those with type 2 diabetes often also grapple with hypertension and dislipidemia and must take additional medications. The juggling act these patients face inspired Zachary A. Weber, Pharm.D., BCPS, BCACP, [...]

  As you may be aware, ASHP recently joined the Center for Pharmacy Practice Accreditation (CPPA) as a governing member. We believe that the CPPA brings considerable value to pharmacy. Its voluntary accreditation standards will help drive improvements in patient care in and between all sites of care, and, thus, will advance the profession of [...]

DISCHARGE FROM HOSPITAL TO HOME or a long-term care facility is a busy time for both patients and care providers. When administrators at Scott and White Memorial Hospital, a 600-bed academic medical center in Temple, Tex., found that the computer-assisted discharge medication reconciliation process wasn’t robust enough, they tapped pharmacy staff for a solution. Seizing [...]

A KEY ELEMENT of advancing pharmacy practice—and a recommendation of ASHP’s Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative—is the expansion of pharmacists’ duties to include writing medication orders. At the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System (CAVHCS), which serves more than 134,000 veterans in a 43-county area of Georgia and Alabama, the clinical pharmacy team has achieved this [...]

AS WE BEGIN A NEW YEAR, I always like to look back at the year that was and focus on moments of success. In my inaugural address, I urged all ASHP members to become Most Valuable Pharmacists (MVPs) within their institutions. And I’ve been privileged to hear from many ASHP members over the last six [...]