Proving That Pharmaceutical Care Makes a Difference in Community Pharmacy

Abstract

two important events helped shape the profession of pharmacy. First, the 1984 Pharmacy in the 21st Century Conference explored whether the profession faced a future of growth or stagnation.1 Then, the following year at the Hilton Head Conference, Doug Hepler first verbalized the notion that pharmacy could have the kind of covenantal relationship exemplified by medical or nursing care.2 We now find ourselves in the 21st century, and pharmaceutical care has become a dominant form of practice for thousands of pharmacists around the globe. Yet, for the average patient, the concept of pharmaceutical care remains an enigma, primarily because it is not provided on a broad scale and in an identifiable manner in the community pharmacies where most people encounter pharmacists. Is it possible for pharmacy to complete its transformation from a commodity-based, mercantile operation into a clinical profession in the community pharmacies of the United States and around the world? The publication of shortand long-term outcomes from the Asheville Project in this issue of JAPhA provides an opportunity to review the pharmaceutical care track record of community pharmacists and identify elements that have afforded or impeded success.