CPPA creates accreditation standards for community pharmacies

The Center for Pharmacy Practice Accreditation (CPPA) has created specific standards for pharmacies to meet to achieve accreditation, a distinction that will help improve patient outcomes-through predictable and measurable care services-and formally recognize pharmacies that are committed to high-quality, innovative, and safe practices.

“The development of accreditation programs and standards is critical to the continued optimization of patient health and the safe and effective use of medications that meet desired health outcomes,” said Lynnae Mahaney, BSPharm, MBA, FASHP, CPPA executive director. “CPPA saw this and took on a leadership role for pharmacy practice accreditation that will ensure continued pharmacist involvement in shaping the use and direction of these standards.”

CPPA created the voluntary program through a consensus-based approach, and pharmacies must meet criteria within these three areas to receive accreditation: practice management, patient care services, and quality improvement.

The goals of the program are to recognize pharmacies for providing patient care services that improve health outcomes and contribute to lower healthcare costs; demonstrate to patients, payers, and providers that a pharmacy is practicing an advanced and consistent level of quality patient care services; promote practice innovation within the pharmacy profession, empowering pharmacists to practice to the fullest extent of their training; and recognize a pharmacy for providing safe and effective quality healthcare.

“Pharmacists’ patient care services are a necessary part of the evolving healthcare system,” Mahaney said. “A voluntary accreditation program gives excellence-committed community practice sites a mechanism for distinguishing themselves and gives patients a new way to find recognized quality.”