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How Oncology Pharmacists Can Improve Care Quality

J Oncol Pract; ePub 2018 Jan 3; Vulaj, et al

Publish date:: February 6, 2018

Oncology pharmacists can improve oncology care quality as part of the clinical team by impacting certain quality measures, researchers concluded after conducting a recent analysis. Investigators analyzed 177 Quality Oncology Practice Initiative measures to determine which ones would most benefit from pharmacist involvement. Among the results:

4 in every 10 of the metrics were potential areas of pharmacist impact.
Most of the identified measures related to optimizing drug therapy through development/implementation of pharmacy guidelines.
Specifically, they tended to deal with patient counseling and symptom management.
Several of the relevant measures overlap with those used for CMS’s Merit-Based Incentive Payment System.

Citation:

Vulaj V, Hough S, Bedard L, Farris K, Mackler E. Oncology pharmacist opportunities: Closing the gap in quality care. [Published online ahead of print January 3, 2018]. J Oncol Pract.

doi:10.1200/JOP.2017.026666.

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