Pharmacist role in Health Care Setting and

Communication with other Healthcare

Professionals
Objectives:
• To identify the role of pharmacist in heath care
setting
• To discuss the role of Pharmacist in
Collaborative Health Care System
• To determine the barriers in Collaborative
Health Care System
Pharmacist role in Health Care Setting
• The focus of profession of
pharmacy has shifted from
technical, product oriented,
functions to patient oriented,
health outcomes counseling
information and professional
services. This shift, generally
referred to as
“Pharmaceutical Care”
• Pharmacist, working in
collaboration with other
health care providers,
undertake responsibility
for patient outcomes with
respect to their drug
therapy.
• The principal task of the modern pharmacist is
to identify, resolve and prevent drug-related
problems.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) has
defined six essential “building blocks” to which
pharmacists can play an integral role as
members of the health care team.
Health services
•            As medicine experts, pharmacists hold the
responsibility to deliver effective, safe, and
quality medicines and services to achieve
optimal health outcomes. Competency in their
discipline and up-to-date knowledge, therefore,
are pharmacists’ core in tailoring information
and advice to their patients
Health workforce
  Well-performing pharmacists
are responsive to patient’s needs
and preferences. In fact, involving
patients in the health care
decision-making process has
shown greater satisfaction and
reduced complaints to offered
services. Given the paradigm shift
from a product-oriented to a
patient-centered pharmacy service,
putting the interests of patients
and treating them with dignity is a
must.
Health information

• As one of the most-accessible health

care professionals, pharmacists are
involved in health screening and
surveillance programs - checking
immunization status and detecting
potential public health hazards.
• Support the development of the
public health system and
collectively reduce vulnerability to
public health threats.
Medical products, vaccines, and technologies

• The roles of pharmacists are

not only limited to medical
products, but
also include vaccines and
medical devices
• Ensuring the efficacy, integrity,
and security of medical
products, devices, and, vaccines
to safeguard a patient’s health.
Health financing

• Ensure the provision of cost-

effective health care through
rational use of medical products
and modern technologies.
•   Pharmacists’ expertise in
reducing and preventing
medication-related problems and
in providing cheaper alternatives
or suggesting medicines that are
covered by insurance.
Leadership and governance

•  Take part in public health

policy development; linking
disease prevalence and drug
utilization
• Development of effective
health policies
• Contribute to resource
mobilization through
optimization of medication
use and distribution.
Collaboration with other healthcare
professionals
• As medicine becomes increasingly specialized,
care teams become more crowded, and
interprofessional collaboration in healthcare is
more important than ever.
What Is Interprofessional Collaboration in Healthcare?

• The World Health Organization defines it as

“multiple health workers from different
professional backgrounds working together with
patients, families, carers (caregivers), and
communities to deliver the highest quality of
care.”
 Collaborative care, defined as “ joint
communicating and decision-making process
with the goal of satisfying the patient’s wellness
and illness needs while respecting the unique
abilities of each professional”
Advantage:

1. Improve patient care

2. Enhance patient safety
3. Reduces workload issues that causes burnout
of health professionals.
 Pharmacists experienced highs (developing trusting
relationships and making positive contributions to
patient care) and lows (struggling with documentation
and workload) during integration into the medical care
team.

From the perspective of the participating

pharmacists, nurse practitioners and physicians, the
integration of pharmacists into the teams was felt to
have facilitated positive patient outcomes by improving
team drug-therapy decision-making, continuity of care
and patient safety
 Additionally, the study increased the
awareness of all team members' potential roles so
that pharmacists, nurses and physicians could
play a part in and benefit from working together
as a team. Focused attention on how practice is
structured, team process and ongoing support
would enable successful implementation of team-
based care in a larger context
5 Benefits of Interprofessional Collaboration in Healthcare

• 1. Improve patient care and outcomes

• 2. Reduce medical errors
• 3. Start treatment faster.
• 4. Reduce inefficiencies and healthcare costs.
• 5. Improve staff relationships and job
satisfaction.
Challenges and Barriers in Collaborative
Health Care System

1. Some pharmacists may lack the advanced

clinical knowledge and skills in physical
examination and patient assessment for
providing a full spectrum of patient centered
care. As a result, this can be challenging for
pharmacists to gain approval from physicians
regarding clinical
2. Practicing pharmacists, especially entry level,
may lack confidence in assuming more
responsibilities in providing a higher level of
patient care as required in collaborative care.
3. Lack of available collaborative practice sites for
experiential or practical training also limits
pharmacist experience and subsequently their
level of confidence and comfort in initiating or
working when faced with such an environment.
4. Pharmacist workload is another problem
recognized by pharmacists as a barrier to
effectively initiating or implementing
collaborative care practice with other health care
providers.
5. From a physician perspective, their training
since medical school emphasizes their role as
leaders who are deemed fully capable in making
independent, major, and final patient related
decisions in an unidisciplinary health care model
• perceived as threats to the independence and
autonomy of the physician’s practice.
6. Include pharmacists in the physician’s daily
routine
7. Lack of physician experience with clinical
pharmacy services and formal collaborative
practice legislation were also considered factors
that negatively impacted the pharmacist–
primary care provider relationship in
collaborative care.
• resistance by physicians or state medical
associations (41%),
• difficulties in educating health care professionals
about pharmacists’ abilities (16%),
• opposition from pharmaceutical manufacturers
(16%),
• opposition from state nursing associations (9%),
and lack of sufficient lobbying efforts among
members (9%)