It's Time for Pharmacies to Show Their Strengths Through Accreditation

Today’s guest post comes from Lynnae M. Mahaney, Executive Director at the Center for Pharmacy Practice Accreditation (CPPA).

Lynnae discusses the benefits and importance of a rigorous pharmacy accreditation. She also offers Drug Channels readers a glimpse into the history and practices of CPPA.

To obtain more information about the accreditation programs offered by CPPA, including standards, a self-assessment tool, and application materials, visit the CPPA website or email Lynnae at lmahaney@pharmacypracticeaccredit.org.

It's Time for Pharmacies to Show Their Strengths Through Accreditation
By Lynnae M. Mahaney, BSPharm, MBA, FASHP
Executive Director, Center for Pharmacy Practice Accreditation

Given the rapid growth in pharmacy practice and the tremendous costs associated with medications, there is a significant need to ensure that pharmacy practices maintain rigorous standards of care and effectively utilize resources to deliver services that improve patient outcomes.

The Center for Pharmacy Practice Accreditation (CPPA), a nonprofit organization established in 2012 through a partnership of the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), recognizes pharmacy practices for providing patient care services that improve health outcomes and contribute to lower health care costs. CPPA’s background is unique among accreditors and our mission is to serve the public health by raising the level of pharmacy-delivered patient care services through accreditation.

Dr. Fein raised an interesting question in a recent Drug Channels article. He asked “As more pharmacies can prove that they are special, will that mean no one is?”

CPPA and its owner organizations believe all pharmacy practices should strive for accreditation because it demonstrates they are performing at a high level and are committed to quality and continuous improvement in care delivery. Shouldn’t all pharmacies aspire to this?

As the healthcare industry is evolving and new models of care focus on the effective use of resources to deliver quality health care and improve patient outcomes, it is critical to have an accreditation program like CPPA. Through CPPA accreditation, pharmacy practices can demonstrate the value their pharmacists, staff, and services provide to the patients they serve in a predictable and measurable way.

Payers, patients, and providers that choose a pharmacy which has earned CPPA accreditation can conclude the following:

• The pharmacy provides an advanced and consistent level of patient care services for a superior health care value.

• The pharmacy evaluates outcomes and metrics to assess the effectiveness and quality of patient care services to ensure their programs contribute to improving the health outcomes of the public.

• The pharmacy is committed to continuous quality improvement.

So to address Dr. Fein’s question: more pharmacy practices accredited by CPPA means more patients are receiving high quality care from exemplary pharmacy practices that promote practice innovation and empower pharmacists to practice at a higher level.

CPPA is growing rapidly because there is an increasing need for our standardized method to recognize pharmacy practices that are committed to fostering medication safety and effectiveness, ensuring continuous quality improvement, and facilitating desired patient health outcomes. In addition, as more pharmacies explore accreditation, there are important factors that influence pharmacies to choose CPPA’s Pharmacy Practice Accreditation Programs over others available in the marketplace.

• CPPA is a partnership of the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP). This means CPPA’s accreditation programs are developed by pharmacists for pharmacies. The practice standards driving the CPPA accreditation process are developed by professionals who have strong medication-use knowledge and experience with the medication-use process.

• CPPA’s accreditation programs are consultative in nature, where best practices are shared with applicants in order to elevate the level of practice and push practice forward.

• The CPPA specialty standards consider all stakeholder needs, covering all standards currently in the marketplace. Our emphasis, however, is the care delivery model because this is what facilitates positive patient health outcomes.

CPPA currently has accreditation programs for specialty pharmacy practice, community pharmacy practice, and telehealth pharmacy practice. (See pharmacypracticeaccredit.org/our-programs.) Since the launch of CPPA’s Specialty Pharmacy Practice Accreditation Program just over a year ago, Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy and Blount Specialty Pharmacy have received CPPA Specialty Pharmacy Practice Accreditation.

Twenty specialty pharmacies, varying from very large to small independents, and health systems, have engaged in CPPA’s Specialty Pharmacy Practice Accreditation Program. CPPA has executed agreements and Memorandums of Understanding with Exelera, Care Pharmacies, and Vizient for specialty accreditation. Fifteen Kroger Pharmacies recently received CPPA Community Pharmacy Practice Accreditation in addition to Diplomat Pharmacy, R&M Pharmacies, Goodrich Pharmacy, Lakeshore Apothacare, Inc., and John Hopkins Outpatient Pharmacy at the Arcade.

I encourage anyone who has questions about accreditation to email me lmahaney@pharmacypracticeaccredit.org. To obtain more information about the accreditation programs offered by CPPA, including standards, a self-assessment tool, and application materials, visit CPPA at www.pharmacypracticeaccredit.org.

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