US Public Health Service Report Supports Maximizing the Scope of the Pharmacist as Part of Health Care Team

Presenting an evidence-based discussion of the comprehensive patient care services that pharmacists currently provide, a new government report calls for expanded support for such pharmacist-delivered patient care models. The report, Improving Patient and Health System Outcomes through Advanced Pharmacy Practice, prepared by the Office of the Chief Pharmacist, US Public Health Service (PHS), is organized into four focus points as follows:

• Focus point 1 discusses how pharmacists are integrated in many practice settings as health care providers, such as through collaborative practice agreements, and provides data showing interprofessional support for such models.
• Focus points 2 and 3 support recognition of pharmacists as health care providers and compensation models that will allow pharmacists to continue to improve patient and health care system outcomes.
• Focus point 4 presents a review of numerous peer-reviewed studies that demonstrate favorable outcomes from pharmacist-delivered care.

RADM Scott Giberson, Chief Professional Officer, PHS Pharmacists, and the primary author of the report, stated that “one of the most evidence-based and cost-effective decisions we can make as a nation is to maximize the expertise and scope of pharmacists, and minimize expansion barriers to successful health care delivery models.”