PHARMACY DEPARTMENT BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS

To recognize that a key objective of pharmacy departments is to provide medication management services across the continuum of patient care, and that pharmacy leaders should proactively evaluate potential business partnerships against this objective; further,

To recognize that hospitals and health-system pharmacy leaders must ensure that business partners meet all applicable patient safety and accountability standards; further,

To provide education and tools for pharmacy leaders to aid in the evaluation of and development of business partnerships; further,

To educate health-system administrators on the importance of pharmacy leadership in evaluating and developing pharmacy-related business partnerships; further,

To encourage health-system pharmacy leaders to consider evolving healthcare financing systems when evaluating and developing business partnerships.

Rationale

Hospitals and health-system pharmacy leaders have to increasingly assess and engage with external business partners in order to facilitate continuity of care for their patients and

optimize outcomes. Hospitals and health-system leaders must be positioned to provide the most comprehensive care for their patient populations. As these external entities expand their market share and become more engaged across the healthcare continuum, a significant number of hospitals and health systems are dealing with how to best evaluate potential business partnerships. In some cases hospital or health-system pharmacy leaders are seeking to create a network of pharmacy locations and services for their patients that the health system cannot build itself. In other cases hospital and health-system pharmacy leaders need to engage with external business partners to provide services they cannot provide or to improve the efficiency of services provided by the hospital or health system. Additionally, a number of business entities see changes in value-based purchasing and readmission payment as an opportunity to contract with health systems. Finally, there are also business partners (e.g., data management, automation, compounding, and consulting organizations) that pharmacy leaders need to engage with in order to manage their pharmacy enterprise. These changes have posed a political, logistical, and professional challenge for pharmacy leaders.