RESUMEN
Patient experience is considered an important dimension of health care quality and thus is included as part of the quadruple aim of health care. The VHA Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner (CPP) operates as an advanced practice provider (APP) providing comprehensive medication management (CMM) with authority to initiate, discontinue or modify medication under a scope of practice (SOP). The VHA CPP practices in many different outpatient clinical areas to include but not limited to primary care, mental health, pain management, cardiology, substance use disorder and anticoagulation. While literature regarding the ability of the VHA CPP to increase access and quality of care is well published, very little information exist regarding patient experience with the VHA CPP. We sought to report the patient experience with VHA CPP as measured electronically over 1 year by Veterans. Patient experience surveys were electronically sent to randomly selected Veterans via email to evaluate a recent outpatient healthcare encounter at a VA medical center or outpatient clinic with a CPP with scoring on a Likert scale of 1-5 with 5 being optimal. A total of 743 Veteran surveys were completed for a response rate of 20%. For individual domains of patient experience based on respondent scores of 4 or 5, ease and simplicity were rated at 94.4%, quality 91.9%, employee helpfulness 94.9%, satisfaction 95.0% and confidence/trust 91.9%. Results demonstrate that Veterans' experience with the CPP in every patient care experience domain was positive with scores ranging from the low to high 90th percentile.
Asunto(s)
Veteranos , Estados Unidos , Humanos , Veteranos/psicología , Administración del Tratamiento Farmacológico , United States Department of Veterans Affairs , Farmacéuticos , Evaluación del Resultado de la Atención al PacienteRESUMEN
The American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Ambulatory Care Practice Research Network (PRN) considers the role of clinical pharmacists to be fundamental to the success of the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model. Within the PCMH, pharmacists can improve the health of populations by participating in activities that optimize medication management. Multiple published articles support clinical pharmacist involvement in the PCMH with regard to promotion of team-based care, enhanced access, care coordination, and improved quality and safety of care. A survey of clinical pharmacist members of ACCP who operate in such a model depict a variety of activities, with some members pioneering new and innovative ways to practice clinical pharmacy. Although this is a significant opportunity for pharmacists in the primary care setting, a unified vision of pharmacy services is needed. It is our hope that with continued efforts focused on obtaining national provider status, clinical pharmacy can use the PCMH model to solidify the future of primary care pharmacy. The following is an opinion statement of the ACCP Ambulatory Care PRN regarding the vital role of clinical pharmacists in the PCMH.