Evaluation of Patient Experience with Veterans Affairs Clinical Pharmacist Practitioners Providing Comprehensive Medication Management.

Patient experience is considered an important dimension of health care quality and thus is included as part of the quadruple aim of health care. The VHA Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner (CPP) operates as an advanced practice provider (APP) providing comprehensive medication management (CMM) with authority to initiate, discontinue or modify medication under a scope of practice (SOP). The VHA CPP practices in many different outpatient clinical areas to include but not limited to primary care, mental health, pain management, cardiology, substance use disorder and anticoagulation.

Increasing rural patient access using clinical pharmacy specialist providers: Successful practice integration within the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Purpose: Access to care is a critical issue facing healthcare and affects patients living in rural and underserved areas more significantly. This led the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to launch a project that leveraged the expertise of the clinical pharmacy specialist (CPS) provider, embedding 180 CPS providers into primary care, mental health, and pain management across the nation.

Methods: This multidimensional project resulted in hiring 111 CPS providers in primary care, 40 CPS providers in mental health, and 35 CPS providers in pain management to serve rural veterans' needs.

Evaluation of the Impact of a Pharmacist-Led Telehealth Clinic on Diabetes-Related Goals of Therapy in a Veteran Population.

Objectives: Telemedicine has been offered as a way to ensure that all patients, including those who live in rural areas, have access to the same health care. This study was performed to evaluate the benefit of a real-time, clinic-based video telehealth (Clinical Video Telehealth [CVT]) program and the impact of a pharmacist-led CVT clinic for chronic disease state management. The primary objective was to evaluate changes from baseline values, in veterans referred by primary care providers to this clinic.

Clinical pharmacists as key members of the patient-centered medical home: an opinion statement of the Ambulatory Care Practice and Research Network of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy.

The American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Ambulatory Care Practice Research Network (PRN) considers the role of clinical pharmacists to be fundamental to the success of the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model. Within the PCMH, pharmacists can improve the health of populations by participating in activities that optimize medication management. Multiple published articles support clinical pharmacist involvement in the PCMH with regard to promotion of team-based care, enhanced access, care coordination, and improved quality and safety of care.

Role of aggressive LDL reduction in patients with coronary heart disease.

The aim of the present study was to integrate research evidence with the care of the patient with coronary heart disease (CHD) and place into perspective the importance of intensive statin therapy. We reviewed five major trials and select related post hoc analyses that examined the beneficial effects from intensive low-density lipoprotein (LDL) reduction on combined morbidity and mortality end points in patients with stabilized CHD and those with recent acute coronary syndrome.Accumulating evidence since the publication of the pivotal Heart Protection Study and Adult Treatment Panel III supports a more intensive LDL reduction than that recommended in the 2004 Adult Treatment Panel III update.