Why ASHP publishes Best Practices

Abstract

A foundation of ASHP’s work and leadership for the past 66 years has been the development of authoritative guidelines aimed at helping hospitals and health systems design safe and effective medication-use systems. At the core of ASHP’s guidelines-development process is a principle that focuses ASHP on what is right for patients as opposed to what is easy to achieve in practice. Emphasizing the right thing to do has been a rich part of ASHP’s history, which has been guided by forward-thinking and visionary member leaders with an unwavering commitment to keeping patients safe, optimizing therapeutic outcomes, and moving pharmacy practice forward in hospitals and health systems. Since 1998, ASHP’s guidelines, often referred to as practice standards, have been called Best Practices.1 The documents included in Best Practices are developed through a member-driven process, which includes recommendation by an ASHP policy council, approval by the ASHP Board of Directors, and, in the case of policy statements and positions, approval by the ASHP House of Delegates.