The Benefits of Pursuing Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation for LTC Pharmacies

Pharmacy Times® interviewed Tim Safley, MBA, program director of the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC), and Jon Pritchett, PharmD, RPh, BCSCP, program director of ACHC, on evaluating the opportunities for long-term care (LTC) pharmacies in relation to specialty pharmacy accreditation. The discussion included why accreditation is needed by specialty and LTC pharmacies, what is needed to become accredited, and the benefits of accreditation.

Safley noted that there are differences among the different organizations that offer accreditation. He said, “I think that any company going through accreditation, especially long-term care pharmacies, need to reach out to each accreditor and understand their process, what the validation is to get accredited, and also the cost related to it. Each accreditor is modeled to their own specifications of what accreditation is about.”

Safley and Pritchett also discussed how LTC pharmacies can apply accreditation to optimize operational efficiency and marketing distinction.