Pharmacists should not be prescribing medications since you need to make a diagnosis to do so. We are not trained in that area. Hell, they don't even require us to take anatomy in pharmacy school.
This is an old thread, but what the heck...I'll reply.
The requirements to be a CPP in North Carolina are:
To become a CPP, as defined, in 21 NCAC 46.3101, you must be a licensed pharmacist and have an agreement
with a physician, as defined in 21 NCAC 46.3101 (6). In addition, you must have either: (1) have completed a Board
of Pharmaceutical Specialties (BPS) Certification or Geriatric Certification, or the American Society of Health-
Systems Pharmacists (ASHP) accredited residency program and have 2 years clinical experience
OR
(2) you must
have earned a PharmD degree, have 3 years experience, and have completed a Certificate Program
OR
(3) you
must have earned a BS degree, have 5 years experience, and have completed two certificate programs.
In addition, they need to earn 35 CEs per year, versus "regular" NC pharmacists, who require only 15 credits per year (which includes 8 live hours).
I am a hospital pharmacist in NC. Our hospital has CPPs in the emergency department and in our neurotrauma ICU. Our CPPs have written agreements with the physicians in those areas. They DO NOT diagnose, but if a patient is diagnosed with "hospital acquired pneumonia", the CPP can then enter orders for the appropriate antibiotics at the appropriate doses without asking the doc "Is it ok for me to enter orders for Zosyn, Levaquin, and vanc on this patient? or "Can I change the vancomycin dose from 1000mg q12h to 1500mg q12h?" The pharmacist can also order follow up labs, cultures, etc, and D/C antibiotics when appropriate. The pharmacist attends multidisciplinary rounds every day, so they will often discuss their plan during rounds.
Our CPPs in the emergency department follow up on culture results for patients discharged from the ED. If culture results dictate that a change in antibiotic therapy is needed, they are able choose the appropriate antibiotic, call it in to a pharmacy, and call the patient to let them know.
Again, the pharmacist does NOT make the diagnosis, they let the MD do that. The pharmacist just manages the medications, as they should. It's a great model - it allows the physicians to focus on other aspects of the patient's care.
If any of you are interested, I have attached an article that was recently published in AJHP (American Journal of Health System Pharmacy). It was written by one of the CPPs at our hospital and co-authored by one of our trauma surgeons. The article focuses on interventions made after the addition of CPPs to our neurotrauma ICU, but in addition, it explains the types of interventions and activities the CPP can perform. (Vol 72, Jan 1, 2015)
It's been almost 4 years since the last post in this thread, but if anyone comes across my post, I hope this helps at least a little bit!
