By Donisha Lewis, PharmD, BCACP
2024 BPS Ambassador
Patient safety is a top priority across the entire spectrum of healthcare, and pharmacists are instrumental in evaluating medication appropriateness, ensuring adherence, and providing medication information to ensure patient safety is prioritized. From inpatient care to community pharmacy, pharmacists ensure patients are safely taking their medications as prescribed. While proper medication dispensing is a major part of pharmacy’s role in patient safety, the impact a pharmacist can make expands even further, particularly with the growth of board certification.
As integral members of care teams, pharmacists enhance patient safety beyond dispensing and their importance has grown with the increase in collaborative practice agreements. Collaborative practice agreements are used to create formal relationships between pharmacists and physicians or other providers that allow pharmacists to contribute to patient care in an advanced way. In many instances, BPS Board Certification can help pharmacists demonstrate necessary qualifications for participation in these interdisciplinary agreements, as board certification validates specialized experience and knowledge. Board certification also promotes trust from providers, colleagues, and leadership, as it is an objective measure of a pharmacist’s competency within a particular specialty area.
Pharmacists are also one of the most accessible healthcare professionals, leading to their importance in patient safety initiatives. They are often able to interact with patients between standard provider visits. During pharmacist-led patient visits, a pharmacist is able to listen to patient concerns and address issues more promptly. For example, under a collaborative practice agreement, pharmacists may be able to adjust a dose or change a medication if a patient is experiencing an adverse effect or is apprehensive about starting a given therapy. If a patient were unable to consult with a healthcare professional until the next regularly scheduled provider visit, the patient may have adjusted or discontinued the medication on their own, which can disrupt care or even cause harm. The pharmacist communicates changes with the provider and provides follow-up with the patient to monitor adjustments. These interventions promote interprofessional collaboration, healthy outcomes, and patient safety.
With BPS Board Certification, pharmacists demonstrate their advanced expertise, which is appreciated by healthcare colleagues and leadership, in addition to ultimately benefiting patients. While there is no doubt that pharmacists are experts in their field, board certification can provide access to opportunities to display that expertise across the healthcare system.
Each professional on the interdisciplinary care team plays a key role in patient safety. As pharmacy practice evolves, the pharmacist’s role in patient care continues to grow. Board certification allows pharmacists expanded opportunities to impact patient care and safety, and I know that certification has played a role in my ability to stay current with best practices in pharmacy practice. I believe that patient safety will continue to be a top priority and I’m excited about the innovative ways board-certified pharmacists will continue to promote it.