The Patient Care Process: Standardized or Not?

Have you seen the new publication, “Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process” at www.pharmacist.com/sites/default/files/JCPP_Pharmacists_Patient_Care_Process.pdf?

It represents another example of the broad cooperation between many national pharmacy organizations through the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners. The document is great, but unless this standardized process becomes part of all pharmacists’ professionalization, so that every patient experiences the same approach, we may have trouble achieving the professional status we desire.

Are you following a standardized process in your patient interactions now? How does it compare to the process described in the document? If it is not identical are you willing to change it to align your process to this process?

Individualization is important because all patients are not the same, but I don’t believe the process by which we go about collecting our information should be different. Since we are team-based practice now, other team members need to be comfortable that the information they rely on for decision-making is complete. Using an approved process helps to ensure that.