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Military may need to hire additional pharmacists to meet JCAHO standard

Patient Safety Monitor Alert, March 3, 2005

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The Air Force and Navy will likely need to hire several hundred additional pharmacists over the next 18 months to meet JCAHO standards, according to Stars and Stripes. The Army-which has kept a higher ratio of pharmacists to pharmacy technicians than other medical services-may also need to hire more pharmacists by August 2006.

The JCAHO will no longer exempt the military from a requirement that a pharmacist review all prescriptions and hospital medication orders before drugs are dispensed.

The exemption recognized that military pharmacy technicians receive more comprehensive training than private sector pharmacy technicians, said Joseph L. Cappiello, the JCAHO's vice president for field operations. But standards on patient safety have evolved so that allowing technicians alone to fill prescriptions-which are checked by other military technicians-will no longer be acceptable.

The change is effective March 1, but the services have 18 months to hire the extra pharmacists they need or to buy telemedicine technology for pharmacists to supervise dispensing of drugs at remote sites.

"Our focus is going to be on patient safety but maintaining the same level of service to beneficiaries," said Capt. Elizabeth Nolan, program director for Navy pharmacies.

To read the complete Stars and Stripes article, click here.

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