Innovations-Magazine-July-August-2023 - 14

ASSOCIATION NEWS
Task Force Recommends Advancing the Role of Pharmacy
Technicians, New Pharmacy Practice Model
Members of the Task Force to Review
Model Rules for the Practice of Pharmacy
and Develop a New Pharmacy Practice
Model made several recommendations
to further NABP's goal of advancing
pharmacy practice to meet patients'
needs for the future. The recommended
actions included supporting national
pharmacy organizations by focusing
on key objectives for a new pharmacy
practice model and disseminating this
information to the state boards of
pharmacy; collaborating with pharmacy
technician organizations to advance the
pharmacy technician role through the
development of uniform education and
certification standards; reviewing the
shared pharmacy services and remote
automated pharmacy systems sections and
any telepharmacy provisions in the Model
State Pharmacy Act and Model Rules of the
National Association of Boards of Pharmacy
(Model Act) by convening another task
force to review language addressing
technological advances; and making
recommended changes to the Model Act.
The task force members began their
discussion with the goal of providing
guidance for the development of a new
pharmacy practice model that would
allow for more meaningful pharmacistpatient
clinical interactions through the
wider use of shared pharmacy services and
expanded scope of practice for pharmacy
technicians. They suggested that broader
Task Force Charge
1. Review the Model Rules for the
Practice of Pharmacy.
2. Review the recommendations
made by the Work Group on
Workplace Safety, Well-Being,
and Working Conditions.
3. Amend, if necessary, the
Model Act accordingly.
regulatory language is needed to support
innovation in pharmacy practice and agreed
that the current prescriptive regulatory
language hinders innovation and limits
pharmacy practice from expanding to
meet public health needs and reduce
disparities. However, all members agreed
that pharmacy regulations should be
substantial enough to ensure public health
protection while still being broad enough
to encourage innovation. This concept
aligned with one of the task force's primary
goals, which was to modernize the Model
Act by removing unnecessary details
and overly burdensome requirements.
The task force began its review of the
recommendations made by the Model Act
Review Committee by focusing on Section
104. Practice of Pharmacy. Members
agreed that the definition of " practice
of pharmacy " should be clarified and
streamlined by incorporating elements
of pharmacist care services and other
foundational services. They also agreed that
Section 104 should be expanded to include
the defined terms found within the new
pharmacy practice definition, " pharmacist
care services " and " collaborative pharmacy
practice, " as well as include information
about medication therapy management.
In addition, the task force made a few
substantive amendments to the remaining
definitions in Section 105.
Model Rules for the Practice of
Pharmacy Recommendations
While reviewing the Model Rules for the
Practice of Pharmacy, task force members
determined that the licensure section
should be abbreviated and recommended
removing several specific requirements
regarding reference materials, formularies,
equipment, physical space, and drug
storage. In Section 2. Security, the task
force agreed to delete the requirement for
board approval of security barriers and
revised the pharmacy security precautions
following separation of employment.
12 | JULY/AUGUST 2023
When reviewing Section 3. Personnel,
the task force agreed that the pharmacistin-charge
(PIC) should retain responsibility
for essential responsibilities but that overly
burdensome PIC requirements be removed.
Task force members also recommended
that this section have a more generalized
framework and thus removed specific details
about certain notifications to the board.
Following their review of Sections 4
and 5, task force members recommended
that controlled substance language related
to the manner of issuance of a prescription
and record keeping should be deleted and
simply reference compliance with federal
laws and rules. They also recommended that
states allow pharmacy technicians to offer
patient counseling and that pharmacists may
prescribe and dispense emergency prescription
drugs under certain circumstances.
When reviewing Sections 10 and 11
regarding the return and reuse of prescription
drugs and drug repository programs,
task force members decided that it was
important that a pharmacist inspect and
ensure compliance with applicable state and
federal requirements before redispensing and
recommended Model Act amendments to
convey the need for pharmacist verification.
For Section 12. Disposal of Controlled
Substances, the task force agreed to delete
all requirements for notification and approval
by the board and modified the section to
simply require compliance with federal law.
Following a spirited discussion, the task
force decided to incorporate the Model
Rules for the Practice of Telepharmacy into
the Model Rules for the Practice of Pharmacy
and recommended that a separate task force
on shared pharmacy services be convened
to review telepharmacy and automated
pharmacy systems in more detail and provide
additional guidance. Finally, the task force
recommended adding the NABP VerifyTM
credential to the Provision of Pharmacist
Care Services Outside of a Licensed
Pharmacy section to further the development
of a new pharmacy practice model.
https://nabp.pharmacy/members/board-resources/model-pharmacy-act-rules/ https://nabp.pharmacy/programs/licensure/verify/
Innovations-Magazine-July-August-2023

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