Kansas’ collaborative practice law set to begin

A new law that will allow pharmacists in Kansas to create collaborative agreements with physicians will take effect in July.

The law, approved earlier this year, authorizes the creation of collaborative agreements that will allow pharmacists to start and modify drug therapies for certain patients and to use their expertise to supplement the work of doctors.

“It’s kind of opened up the door for pharmacists to start thinking about doing it and now they know they can push forward in providing more pharmacy services,” Tiffany Shin, clinical assistant professor at the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy-Wichita, told the Wichita Eagle. “Pharmacy students out of pharmacy school are trained more clinically,” Shin said. “It’s shifting the paradigm from dispensing to providing pharmacy services and utilizing knowledge to optimize medications.”

Open to community settings

Kansas’ law already authorized limited collaborative practice between physicians and pharmacists, and most of that collaboration was being done exclusively in health systems. But the new law clarifies what can and cannot be done in both health systems and in community practice, according to Debra Billingsley, executive director of the Kansas State Board of Pharmacy.

“We’ve been doing collaborative practice. It’s been happening as an agreement with physicians as captains of the ship for a number of years, but there was nothing on the books that stated what pharmacists can do,” Joan Kramer, research pharmacy specialist at Wesley Medical Center, told the paper.

Shin said the new law would help pharmacists serve patients who need help with medications. “I can meet with a patient individually and provide education on diabetes, blood sugar, and give insulin,” Shin said.