Quality improvement in pharmacy: a prescription for change

Quality improvement activities offer pharmacists opportunities for establishing their roles as clinical practitioners, documenting their contributions to quality-of-care improvement, and bringing recognition to pharmacy as a clinical profession. Unfortunately, pharmacists haven't yet recognized the importance of or need for these programs. Drug usage evaluations and quality improvement still are not considered a benefit or an opportunity but continue to be perceived as boring, tedious tasks that must be performed for the Joint Commission rather than the patient. The time has come to refocus our emphasis on what really matters. We need to build quality improvement programs not merely to placate the Joint Commission but to improve the quality of care for patients. We need to build quality improvement programs that extend to the grass roots level of every organization so that everyone is involved, participating, and committed to correcting patient-care problems. This commitment must become a routine habit, a daily acknowledgment, and an ongoing process. Clinical practitioners must become actively involved in quality improvement programs by developing valid, reliable indicators to help ensure safe, appropriate use of drugs. We need to develop a computer model to assist in data collection for drug usage evaluations and quality improvement projects. And we must create a multidisciplinary team of practitioners, including physicians, nurses, and pharmacists, to thoroughly evaluate and respond to this information. A successful team effort means everybody wins, and the biggest winner of all is--and must be--the patient.