A patient-centered pharmacy practice model

Abstract

Much of the discussion in the literature regarding pharmacy practice models is related to staffing, personnel roles, and the location of hospital practice (e.g., centralized versus decentralized).1,2 More-comprehensive analyses have addressed basic principles of a model and the services provided.3 We submit that the practice model should put the patient at the center of care. Future practice models will be relationship driven. As such, the practice model, rather than being focused on pharmacy staffing, should be built upon and should define the pharmacist’s relationships with patients and other caregivers. From this starting point, we must define the work of the future, the roles to do that work, and the education and training needed to create those roles. What do we risk? The world is full of examples of businesses that went into decline because they looked inward instead of outward toward customers’ needs. The Ford Motor Company continued to make large, fuel-inefficient vehicles during the early 2000s despite rising gasoline prices. The company lost billions of dollars. Drucker4 summed it up this way: “The result of a business is a satisfied customer. The result of a hospital is a healed patient. . . . Inside the enterprise, there are only costs.” Pharmacists must begin with full knowledge of patients’ needs and of the greater landscape of health care.