Accountability: The New Expectation for Pharmacy

I made a presentation recently in which I proposed that accountability will be the NEW expectation for all health care providers. The majority of my pharmacist audience agreed that this was true. The natural question then is what should pharmacists be accountable for?

The Joint Commission on Pharmacy Practitioners has proposed that by the year 2015, “Pharmacists will be the health care professionals responsible for providing patient care that ensures optimal medication therapy outcomes.” Do you think in a reformed health care system that dispensing pharmacists will be held accountable for the outcomes of the drug products they dispense?

If not, will some pharmacists take over that role and will other pharmacists be accountable only for accurate medication dispensing? What do you think will happen to pharmacist roles in a reformed health care system? These are questions that require scrutiny if we are to move the profession of pharmacy forward!