ASHP Publishes Updated Best Practices Resource

PRESS RELEASE

BETHESDA, MD - ASHP recently released ASHP Best Practices 2015-2016, its annual compilation of quality policy positions, statements, guidelines, therapeutic position statements, and therapeutic/clinical practice guidelines available to the pharmacy profession.

This latest edition of the book contains 28 new policies, five revised statements and guidelines, and two new guidelines on pharmacist involvement in HIV care and the design of database-driven clinical decision support.

"For more than half a century, starting with Proposed Minimum Standards for Pharmacies in Hospitals, ASHP guidance documents have stimulated improvements in clinical pharmacy practice and operations while influencing accreditation standards, laws, and regulations in the United States and around the world,” said Kasey K. Thompson, Pharm.D., M.S., M.B.A., ASHP Vice President of Policy, Planning and Communications. “With ASHP Best Practices 2015-2016, ASHP continues to provide invaluable practice advice to pharmacists who practice in both acute and ambulatory care settings.”

Available in print or as an e-book, this unique resource includes ASHP positions and more than 70 ASHP guidance documents of varying scope that provide ongoing advice to practitioners and health systems to improve the medication-use process, patient care and safety, and patient outcomes and quality of life.

The 2015-2016 version has been revised to include two new ASHP guidelines:

- Pharmacist Involvement in HIV Care: This guideline supersedes the ASHP Statement on the Pharmacist's Role in the Care of PAtients with HIV Infection. It shifts the focus from patient care while managing HIV to innovative ways in which pharmacists can contribute to optimal patient care while working within an interdisciplinary healthcare team. These guidelines identify key aspects of HIV prevention, care, and treatment in which pharmacists can establish novel roles to meet the current and future challenges of the U.S. HIV epidemic.

- The Design of Database-Driven Clinical Decision Support: Strategic Directions for Drug Database and Electronic Health Records Vendors: This new guideline describes essential functions and capabilities that should be available in drug databases and electronic health records to reduce alert fatigue and increase user satisfaction and overall effectiveness of clinical decision support (CDS) systems. It also advocates for collaboration among health information system vendors, drug database vendors, and the end-user community on CDS system design and testing and development of new algorithmic models for pharmacotherapy warnings.

The resource also includes revised revised ASHP statements and guidelines on the following:

- ASHP Statement on the Roles and Responsibilities of the Pharmacy Executive

- ASHP Statement on Pharmacist's Role in Substance Abuse, Prevention, Education, and Assistance

- ASHP Statement on the Pharmacist's Role in Clinical Informatics [replaces ASHP Statement on the Pharmacist’s Role in Informatics]- ASHP Guidelines on Outsourcing Sterile Compounding Services

- ASHP Guidelines: Minimum Standard for Ambulatory Care Pharmacy Practice

ASHP Best Practices 2015-2016 is

available for purchase

. All the guidance documents (policy positions, statements, guidelines, therapeutic position statements, and therapeutic/clinical practice guidelines) are

freely available online

.