Led by Caitlin Prather, Pharm.D., Clinical Pharmacy Specialist and Residency Program Director at the Inova Health System and Keenan Rea, Pharm.D., an ambulatory care clinical pharmacist at the University of Virginia Physicians Group (UPG), the Practice Advancement Workgroup aims to break down barriers to implementation and sustainability of pharmacist services through collaborative efforts among members.

The idea for the workgroup began during Rea’s first clinical role post-residency where she was tasked to build ambulatory pharmacy services within a provider’s office. 

“During that process, I shared a lot of national data and examples of pharmacist services with my compliance department, but they wanted to see examples of successful practices within Virginia,” Rea wrote. 

This sparked discussions with Prather and Jon Puhl, Pharm.D., System Director of Clinical Pharmacy at the Inova Health System, where they identified a shared challenge: the lack of state-specific resources and successful implementation models pertaining to pharmacist services. They realized that this gap was forcing new and seasoned pharmacists to start from scratch on their own when it came to implementing new services, despite many other pharmacists already engaging in similar pursuits. 

To address this need, they formed the Practice Advancement Workgroup with hopes of creating a robust repository of resources and connections to assist Virginia pharmacists. 

Consisting of about 60 members from provider offices, health care systems, retail and academic institutions, the aim of the workgroup is to make pharmacist-provided ambulatory services a standard and sustainable practice across different pharmacy practice settings throughout Virginia. 

The group has continued to evolve from its original bi-monthly meetings to include monthly emails with clinical and legal updates, upcoming events and success stories, with priority areas based on member interests.

“The most commonly requested topics include billing for services, position justification/adequate staffing, garnering support from providers/leadership and implementing new services,” Rea wrote. “We try to touch on as many topics as we can.”

With Prather’s assistance, the group launched a website featuring billing codes, collaborative practice agreement templates and metrics to aid pharmacists in developing ambulatory care services.

“This is a very informal group with no qualification requirements, application process or membership fees,” Rea noted. 

For more information about the Practice Advancement Workgroup or to join, email Keenan Rea at reakb@alumni.vcu.edu.