Hospital Self-Assessment, National Dashboard Will Help Pharmacists Gauge Progress
BETHESDA, Md.— The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and ASHP Research and Education Foundation have launched a new Web-based assessment tool and set of national goals and measurements to help hospital pharmacists determine how their health systems align with the recommendations of the Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative (PPMI).
The Hospital Self-Assessment (HSA) tool and the National Dashboard scorecard, located on the PPMI web site, are outcomes of the invitational PPMI Summit held in November 2010. During the summit, hospital pharmacy leaders developed practice model recommendations designed to ensure that pharmacists participate on interdisciplinary teams as the health care professionals who are responsible and accountable for patients' medication outcomes.
“We are so excited to roll out the first two deliverables from the summit that will capture both the individual institutional perspective as well as provide an overall picture of how practice model change is happening nationally,” said ASHP President Stan Kent, M.S., FASHP. Kent noted that three ASHP state affiliates (Wisconsin, Utah, and Michigan) are piloting the HSA in hospitals within their states.
The HSA assesses an individual hospital’s conformity with PPMI recommendations and includes questions on:
· Optimal pharmacy practice model characteristics,
· Applying information technology in the medication-use process,
· Advancing the use of pharmacy technicians, and
· Successfully implementing new pharmacy practice models.
Upon completing the HSA questionnaire, users can develop a list of priorities individualized for his or her hospital or health system. Hospitals also can generate reports comparing their data with aggregated data collected from similar hospitals within their state.
The National Dashboard is a set of five goals and 26 measures designed to provide a broader national picture of successful adoption of PPMI recommendations. National Dashboard data will be collected annually via the ASHP National Survey and reported during the Society’s Midyear Clinical Meeting in December.
For more than 60 years, ASHP has helped pharmacists who practice in hospitals and health systems improve medication use and enhance patient safety. The Society's 35,000 members include pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who practice in inpatient, outpatient, home-care, and long-term-care settings, as well as pharmacy students. For more information about the wide array of ASHP activities and the many ways in which pharmacists help people make the best use of medicines, visit ASHP's Web site, www.ashp.org, or its consumer Web site,
About the ASHP Foundation
The ASHP Research and Education Foundation was established in 1968 by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists as a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. The mission of the Foundation is to improve the health and well-being of patients in hospitals and health systems through appropriate, safe and effective medication use. The Foundation provides leadership and conducts education and research activities that foster the coordination of interdisciplinary medication management leading to optimal patient outcomes. Emphasis is given to programs that will have a major impact on advancing pharmacy practice in hospitals and health systems, thereby improving public health.