Tania Mysak
Tighten our belts. Work smarter, not harder. Live within our means. Chances are you have heard these phrases or versions of them at some point. Whether talking about federal budgets, home finances, or workplace efficiencies, there is an expectation that we review our current practices and look for ways of making them more sustainable.
This process is quite similar to the choices that pharmacists make every day in patient care interactions. We triage and plan our finite daily hours to be as efficient as possible and to ensure that those most in need of our care receive it. We navigate the resources available to patients to ensure they receive the drug therapy from which they are most likely to benefit and that they can afford. Proper medication management ensures that medications added to therapy are of real value to patients and their health goals. If there is an unnecessary drug in the mix, we deprescribe: keep the value, eliminate the waste.
From a pharmacy management perspective, we further apply these principles. Pharmacy managers and directors must consider, at the department level, which patient areas will receive proactive care, with integration of pharmacists into care teams, and which will receive a more reactive approach, perhaps from a dispensary or remote location. They must determine what level of service allocation can be provided with the resources available, and how to prioritize ever-changing requirements for the provision of safe medication.
Ultimately, these principles are about making judicious decisions as to how limited resources will be used.
As a professional association with a mandate to serve its membership, the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists (CSHP) is not immune to the requirement to review programming in the context of finite resources. Our main sources of revenue as a society are membership dues and the Professional Practice Conference, which is profitable thanks to the generous support of industry. We continue to face challenges on both of those fronts and are actively working with our Branches and industry partners to maintain and increase these revenue streams. While looking for opportunities in these areas, we must also consider our programming and address the expense side of the balance sheet. This past summer, the CSHP Board began the work of evaluating our many programs, putting them through a standardized series of questions designed to examine the value that each program offers to the Society. As this evaluation proceeds, we will be reaching out to you, the members, for input and guidance. These are tough conversations; as we know from any of the examples provided above, it is really hard to say “no” to something you personally believe is important or have done for ages.
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The CSHP Board is committed to the Society’s Vision of being a “thriving, progressive society” and our strategic goal of alignment between priorities and resources. We look forward to updating you on our progress as we continue this important work.
Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, VOLUME 71, NUMBER 5, September-October 2018