By Rebecca Maynard, Pharm.D., pharmacist, Bronson Methodist Hospital, Kalamazoo and MSHP President-elect
As we head into the final year of our 2018-2020 strategic plan, our Michigan Society of Health-System Pharmacists (MSHP) President, Curtis Smith, is leading us forward with a theme of Being Pharmacy Champions. Beginning my term as President-elect for MSHP, I feel invigorated by this year’s theme and its focus on communicating the work we have done over the last two years in demonstrating our value and achieving patient care outcomes. As part of the development and implementation of our first three-year strategic plan, we have focused heavily on identifying and executing who we want to be as an organization and how our vision and mission can be realized through clearly defined goals, objectives and charges.
As Curtis described in his January MSHP Monitor article, we must utilize creative communication to implement change. The 2020 charges for MSHP Committees reinforce his vision of communicating creatively to support, encourage and promote the great work that health-system pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are doing throughout the state. At our January Committee Day, it was incredible to see the confluence of so many members working together on their committees’ charges. If you haven’t done so already, I highly encourage you to review our 2020 Chapter Manual for the various committees’ purpose, responsibilities and activities and see what actions our committees will be taking over the next year. There are some great examples of creative ways our committees will be communicating the impact of health-system pharmacists, like the charge for our Ambulatory Care Pharmacy Practice Committee to develop a recorded webinar, video or podcast about strategies used to create methods for documenting and tracking outcomes in the ambulatory setting.
Being a pharmacy champion can occur at any level – from demonstrating excellence in your clinical practice, fighting for expansion of pharmacy services within your organization, advocating for people in underserved areas of Michigan to have pharmacist providers who can perform comprehensive medication management, to supporting national efforts to advance pharmacy practice. This past month, the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy (AJHP) published two future-forward reports—the Practice Advancement Initiative (PAI) 2030 recommendations and the ASHP Foundation Pharmacy Forecast 2020 report.1,2 These reports provide further direction for advancing patients’ health and health outcomes, and move pharmacy practice forward, especially as we move deeper into the digital age.3 The reports are not expected to be accurate predictions for the future, but should encourage us to think provocatively about what needs to happen in every hospital and health-system, and how those needs can be addressed through MSHP.
As we ponder how we can be pharmacy champions this year, consider the PAI 2030 themes for practice change: optimize care via pharmacist-provided comprehensive medication management, advance pharmacy technician roles, harness data to improve patient health, integrate pharmacy enterprise for convenient and cost-effective care, adopt personalized, targeted therapies, and public health opportunities in social determinants, chronic illness and addiction. The report provides five domains in which we can impact those practice changes:
- patient-centered care
- pharmacist’s role, education and training
- technology and data science
- pharmacy technician role, education and training
- leadership in medication use and safety
Each of these domains have three subdomains in which recommendations are targeted at a specific level:
- practice-focused (primarily front-line care)
- organization-focused (relates to pharmacy departmental or institutional leadership)
- profession-focused (implementation must be profession-wide)
Again, since being a pharmacy champion isn’t done at just one level, I challenge you to review the initiatives and find a few that speak to you on personal practice, hospital/health-system and professional organization levels. What areas is MSHP addressing well? How can we best communicate that to other organizations? What areas should MSHP be developing? Within the three focus areas of our strategic plan (pharmacy practice advancement, Michigan patients and their care, and MSHP members), what are a few initiatives in the 2030 report that we should be focusing on for MSHP’s 2021-2023 strategic plan?
The word champion implies a strong level of involvement and action. This year, we are called to act on the plans we have been building over the last two years and decide on our future focus for advancing our practice, the care of our patients and the members of MSHP. Be a pharmacy champion this year. Speak publicly about the ways we positively impact our patients’ lives. Promote the value of pharmacists and pharmacist extenders in all levels of care. Defend our patients’ right to have a pharmacist that can ensure both the safety and effectiveness of medication use through comprehensive medication management, regardless of their means or location. As stated in the editorial for the PAI 2030 report, “We cannot be passive in this time of change.”3 Please continue to be involved or challenge yourself to increase your involvement in MSHP to help shape our future.
References:
1. Vermeulen LC, Swarthout MD, Alexander GC et al. Pharmacy forecast 2020: strategic planning advice for pharmacy departments in hospitals and health systems. Am J Health-Syst Pharm. 2020;77:84-112.
2. ASHP Practice Advancement Initiative 2030: New recommendations for advancing pharmacy practice in health systems. Am J Health-Syst Pharm. 2020;77(2):113-121.
3.Abramowitz PW, Maroyka EM, Scheckelhoff DJ. Achieving the PAI 2030 vision: Leading and navigating transformative change. Am J Health-Syst Pharm. 2020;77(2):66-67.