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Nearly 90% of Americans live within 5 miles of a community pharmacy. This proximity, in addition to their expertise in drug therapy, puts pharmacists in a unique position to oversee and manage patients’ medications.The pharmacy profession has consistently advocated for expanding the scope of pharmacist's practice to include patient care services beyond the traditional role of dispensing. This expansion includes authorizing pharmacists to prescribe medications.Authorization for pharmacists to prescribe is defined by state regulations, federal agencies (eg, Indian Health Service [IHS], Veterans Health Administration [VHA]), employers, and professional organizations.At the state level, a number of advances have been made that provide pharmacists with limited prescriptive authority.
Although almost every state authorizes pharmacists to prescribe to some extent, the models and restrictions vary – leading to considerable state-to-state variability. As of 2016, 49 states and the District of Columbia had enabled prescriptive authority under collaborative practice agreements (CPAs), standing orders, and/or statewide protocols. Currently, pharmacist prescribing at the state level generally exists along a continuum that includes 2 categories of prescriptive authority.This program was developed by The Rx Consultant and published by Continuing Education Network, Inc. The Rx Consultant accepts no advertising or financial support from the pharmaceutical industry and is funded solely by the purchase of programs. The Rx Consultant is dedicated to providing unbiased, balanced information to health care practitioners.
Programs developed by The Rx Consultant are written by health care providers with expertise in the topic area, peer-reviewed, extensively edited, and fact-checked. This development process was created to insure that every program presents information that is current, accurate, relevant to "real world" health care providers, and written in an easy reading, "plain English" style.
The Rx Consultant is a publication of Continuing Education Network, Inc.
ACPE Universal Activity Number: 0428-0000-20-007-H03-P
Chief Editor and CE AdministratorTerry M. Baker, PharmD
Managing EditorTracy Farnen, PharmD
Associate EditorsJames Chan, PharmD, PhD Pharmacy Quality and Outcomes Coordinator Kaiser Permanente Oakland, CA
Associate Clinical Professor
Richard Ron Finley, B.S. Pharm.,R.Ph.
Consultant Pharmacist
Consult Pharmacist Aging and Adult Health Services
Julio R. Lopez, PharmD, FCSHP
Adjunct Clinical Professor |
Assistant Clinical Professor
Visiting Associate Professor and Lecturer Pamela Mausner, MD
Helen Berlie, Pharm.D. CDE, BCACP
Ambulatory Care Specialist - Diabetes
Senior Editorial AdvisorGerard Hatheway, PharmD, PhD
Editorial AdvisorsBelinda M. Danielson, RPh Christopher M. DeSoto, PharmD Angie S. Graham, PharmD Cynthia Chan Huang, PharmD, MBA Fred Plageman, PharmD
Editorial Advisor and Clinical Practice Consultant for Nurse PractitionersEmily K. Meuleman, RN, C, MS |
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