STATE PHARMACY REGULATORS OPINIONS ON REGULATING PHARMACEUTICAL CARE OUTCOMES

OBJECTIVE: To examine the opinions of state pharmacy regulators regard ing responsibility for the outcomes of drug therapy, and approaches th at might be taken to regulate for pharmaceutical care outcomes. DESIGN : Surveys were sent to the executive secretaries of state pharmacy boa rds. The executive secretaries were encouraged to seek input from othe r board staff and board members in formulating a response. Reminder po stcards were sent to all subjects 1 week after the initial mailing. ME ASURES: The survey instrument was divided into three sections. The fir st section identified 10 approaches that state boards could use to reg ulate for outcomes and asked subjects to indicate the utility of each. The second and third sections asked the subjects to determine the ext ent to which pharmacies and pharmacists, respectively, should be respo nsible for outcomes potentially related to pharmaceutical care. RESULT S: Forty-one usable surveys were returned. All approaches to regulatio n were viewed as potentially useful, and scores for three approaches i ndicated that they would be consistently helpful for effective regulat ion of pharmaceutical care outcomes. The pharmacy was viewed as solely responsible for poor outcomes related to systems deficiencies, a lack of self-assessment, inadequate references, equipment, and technician support. Pharmacists were assigned greatest responsibility for outcome s related to prescription filling, and less responsibility for outcome s related to patient care. However, there was considerable variation i n responses to many of the items, reflecting the diverse opinions of p harmacy regulators on these issues. CONCLUSIONS: While pharmacy regula tors appear open to some outcomes-oriented approaches to regulation, t here is no clear consensus on responsibility for pharmaceutical care o utcomes.