Realizing the vision for pediatric pharmacy practice advancement through strategic planning and implementation

In a rapidly changing healthcare landscape, pharmacy leaders must be agile and innovative to ensure that patients receive the highest-quality care. Here we describe the benefits of using a structured approach to pediatric pharmacy practice advancement guided by strategic planning and quality improvement principles.

Although there are many profound differences between pediatric and adult pharmacy management practices, many similarities also exist. Small- and large-scale change is most commonly guided by quality improvement methodology at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Using this framework, the pharmacy practice model at Nationwide Children's Hospital was reenvisioned to facilitate best patient outcomes and advance the role of pharmacists in the care of pediatric patients. Through these efforts, the percentage of inpatient hospital services with a pharmacist embedded into the care team increased from 67% to 90%, the number of pharmacists providing direct inpatient care increased from 27 to 50, and the number of ambulatory clinical pharmacists more than tripled, from 3 to 10. Enhanced clinical pharmacy services were developed to provide consistent care on weekends and holidays while striving to reach zero patient harm. Involvement of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, alignment with the health system's mission, and internal development of pharmacists through focused training programs were vital to successful practice advancement.

Significant practice model advancement in a pediatric healthcare system is achieved by using the organization's common language for change, involving frontline staff in creating the vision, and leadership steadfastly committing to realize the vision.