CDC Publishes Tool Kit Highlighting APhA Foundation Consortium Recommendations on Collaborative Practice Agreements (CPA)
WASHINGTON, DC – The Division of Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention (DHDSP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in partnership with the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Foundation, announces a translational tool kit, which includes targeted recommendations for pharmacists, other health care providers, payers, and decision-makers, for instituting Collaborative Practice Agreements (CPA) and pharmacists’ patient care services in an effort to improve health care quality. Depending on each state’s law, a pharmacist CPA is a formal agreement that allows for the referral of a patient from their physician to a pharmacist for specific patient care services. Pharmacists’ patient care services have demonstrated improvements in patient health outcomes and overall health care costs, especially for individuals with chronic diseases such as high blood pressure.
“Research shows us that a patient’s control of their blood pressure improves when their care is provided by a team of health professionals,” says David Callahan, MD, with the DHDSP at the CDC. “This tool kit will play an invaluable role in allowing physicians and pharmacists to work together to give patients optimal care and save lives by controlling blood pressure.”
Content for the tool kit was developed with the input of the APhA Foundation based upon its consortium on CPAs and pharmacists’ patient care services held in January 2012. A group of 22 national experts developed recommendations of principles and strategies for implementing CPAs to most effectively optimize the role of pharmacists in team-based, patient centered care. Vital components that have been included in the translational tool kit include the use of consistent language, defined details, proper infrastructure, aligned incentives and reorganization of operational policies.
“It was a pleasure to partner with the CDC to explore the meaningful implementation of collaborative practice agreements,” says Mindy Smith, BSPharm, Executive Director of the APhA Foundation. “The DHDSP at the CDC and the APhA Foundation have a common goal of improving people’s health, and CPAs can help achieve that goal by solidifying collaborative, patient-focused healthcare teams in a variety of practice settings.”Along with recommendations for the four target audiences, the toolkit also contains examples from three pharmacies that have already proven to be successful in improving care by establishing stronger relationships between pharmacists and other health care providers. The tool kit is expected to provide guidance to individuals, organizations, and decision-makers who are interested in restructuring health care delivery through implementation of CPAs and advancement of pharmacists’ patient care services.
“As more health care teams implement CPAs that include pharmacists, providers will begin to deliver the truly interdisciplinary care that is essential to achieve improved health care quality, access, and patient outcomes,” says Benjamin Bluml, BSPharm, APhA Foundation Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation.
About the American Pharmacists Association Foundation
The APhA Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., works to design solutions to medication use problems in America. The APhA Foundation’s mission is to improve people’s health through pharmacists’ patient care services. The APhA Foundation is affiliated with the American Pharmacists Association, the national professional society of pharmacists in the U.S. For more information, please visit the APhA Foundation website www.aphafoundation.org.