As the American Medical Association pushes back on efforts to expand pharmacists' scopes of practice and lawmakers reintroduce bills aimed at increasing pharmacist roles, four leaders at hospitals and health systems weighed in on the debate.
- Desi Kotis, PharmD. Chief Pharmacy Executive of the University of California San Francisco Health: Expanding pharmacists' scopes of practice is "necessary and overdue."
- Lana Witt, PharmD. Pharmacy Director of Stanford Health (Palo Alto, Calif.): "We need to work collaboratively. Patients are not reached, and pharmacists can contribute to help a patient receive care. I feel the same about APP, which are advanced practice providers, and they have the same issue with AMA and other groups. We should talk more about who's doing what, how do we convince others that we're capable. … We know our limits."
- Leigh Briscoe-Dwyer, PharmD. System Director of Pharmacy of Johnson City, N.Y.-Based Hospitals for Universal Health Services (Binghamton, N.Y.): "Every time a new drug comes out or a new procedure comes out, we don't ask providers to undergo special training for it. It's part of your obligation as a healthcare professional to do what you're comfortable with, be informed and stay on top of what's going on.
"If I went upstairs to all the providers who work with my pharmacists, if I ever said, 'Do you think we should not have the collaboration that we have?' They would strangle me before they would let me take people off the floor. They really would. … Individual providers and physicians, they love the interactions they have with their pharmacist. I have new physicians who come on board here and the first question they have is, 'Who's my pharmacist? I want to meet my pharmacist.'"
- Will Carroll, PharmD. Chief Pharmacy Officer and Vice President of Network Pharmacy of Hackensack Meridian Health (Edison, N.J.): "I would love for pharmacists to get provider status at some point, especially in our rural areas and underserved populations. In my personal opinion, we don't have enough PCPs, we don't have enough NPs to service all these patients. There are clear social determinants of health gaps when it comes to access. Why not leverage pharmacists who are doctorally trained individuals who are more than capable of providing some of this chronic disease management? Why not utilize us to provide some of this care to help fill the gap in care?"