5 tips to make new framework work for you and your patients

1. Be innovative – re-engineer information and workflow patterns to optimize the use of human resources and minimize redundancy.

• The Systems Approach to Quality Assurance – look particularly to the online presentation Application of Systems Analysis Beyond Drug Incidents                
• Ask your ACP Pharmacy Practice Consultant about LEAN workflow management.

2. Be accessible – success depends on pharmacists engaging with patients to both assess and understand their needs and to support them with interventions to resolve them.

• Chat, Check and Chart                 
• Standard 8 – outlines requirements for pharmacist-patient dialogues

3. Be patient-centered – assess your patients’ needs, understand their health, and identify drug related problems; determine solutions and act upon them.

• Code of Ethics Principle 1: Hold the well-being of each patient to be your primary consideration
• Standards of Practice
  • Standard 2 – establish and maintain professional relationships with patients
  • Standard 3 – considering appropriate information
  • Standard 12.5 – duty to determine whether it is appropriate to adapt a prescription (refers to Standard 3)
  • Standard 13.3 – when prescribing in an emergency
  • Standard 14.3 – when exercising additional prescribing privileges
  • Documentation – Appendix A
    • patient demographics
    • drug profile
    • record of care

4. Be relevant – exercise reasonable judgment in an informed manner, and respond to the needs of your patients.

• Code of Ethics Principle 10: Act with honesty and integrity                
• Standards 11 and 12 outline the fundamentals of prescribing
• Transition Times, Winter 2010 contains tips to help you transition from dispensing to a more patient-focused practice

5. Be team oriented – intraprofessional collaboration is as important as interprofessional collaboration. Help both your pharmacy team and your colleagues in other health professions know how your practice will be changing, how you want to work together, and how these changes will benefit patients.

• Transition Times, Winter 2008 – The communications issue                
• Holland and Nimmo “Transitions in Pharmacy Practice” series – Five papers outlining a systematic approach to implementing change in pharmacist practices. These will help you understand how you, your team members, and colleagues react to change and provide tips to help you champion new practices.
• Code of Ethics Principle 7: Use health resources responsibly

For updates and details on the pharmacy services framework, look to the RxA website: www.rxa.ca

For billing information, watch for the Benefact from Alberta Blue Cross.