Pharmaceutical care: new management and leadership imperatives

The management imperatives for pharmaceutical care concern themselves with complexity, while leadership imperatives are concerned with effecting change. Both "species" of action are needed to support the paradigm shift associated with pharmaceutical care. Pharmacy managers must be the architects and engineers of the new dimensions of complexity associated with pharmaceutical care while also serving as zealots of change for pharmaceutical care within their departments and hospitals. In the final analysis, departments of pharmacy do not practice pharmaceutical care. They are, however, the borne fruit of pharmacy managers and leaders who provide for an appropriate environment inclusive of resources and systems necessary for individual pharmacists to make the commitment to making pharmaceutical care a reality.