Joint Commission of

Pharmacy Practitioners

Vision Statement

Pharmacists will be the health care professionals responsible for providing patient care that ensures optimal medication therapy outcomes.

Pharmacy Practice in 2015

The Foundations of Pharmacy Practice.  Pharmacy education will prepare pharmacists to provide patient-centered and population-based care that optimizes medication therapy; to manage health care system resources to improve therapeutic outcomes; and to promote health improvement, wellness, and disease prevention.  Pharmacists will develop and maintain:

•  a commitment to care for, and care about, patients

•  an in-depth knowledge of medications, and the biomedical, sociobehavioral, and clinical sciences

•  the ability to apply evidence-based therapeutic principles and guidelines, evolving sciences and emerging technologies, and relevant legal, ethical, social, cultural, economic, and professional issues to contemporary pharmacy practice.

How Pharmacists Will Practice.  Pharmacists will have the authority and autonomy to manage medication therapy and will be accountable for patients’ therapeutic outcomes.  In doing so, they will communicate and collaborate with patients, care givers, health care professionals, and qualified support personnel.  As experts regarding medication use, pharmacists will be responsible for:

•  rational use of medications, including the measurement and assurance of medication therapy outcomes

•  promotion of wellness, health improvement, and disease prevention

•  design and oversight of safe, accurate, and timely medication distribution systems.

Working cooperatively with practitioners of other disciplines to care for patients, pharmacists will be:

•  the most trusted and accessible source of medications, and related devices and supplies

•  the primary resource for unbiased information and advice regarding the safe, appropriate, and cost-effective use of medications

•  valued patient care providers whom health care systems and payers recognize as having responsibility for assuring the desired outcomes of medication use.

How Pharmacy Practice Will Benefit Society.  Pharmacists will achieve public recognition that they are essential to the provision of effective health care by ensuring that:

•  medication therapy management is readily available to all patients

•  desired patient outcomes are more frequently achieved

•  overuse, underuse and misuse of medications are minimized

•  medication-related public health goals are more effectively achieved

•  cost-effectiveness of medication therapy is optimized.