This page is part of the Pharmacist Care Plan FHIR IG (v0.2.0: STU 1 Draft) based on FHIR v3.1.0. The current version which supercedes this version is 1.0.0. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions

Project Background

Pharmacists work in multiple environments (community, hospital, long term care, clinics, etc.) and increasingly participate in patient-centered care teams providing essential clinically-oriented patient care services such as medication therapy management, clinical reconciliation (medication, allergies and problems), patient immunization management, disease state monitoring, and therapy adherence programs. These services reduce adverse drug events, improve patient safety, and optimize medication use and health outcomes. Pharmacists are integral members of the health care team and have unique and frequent access to patients, routinely working with patients to facilitate understanding and compliance with drug regimens, reconcile medications from multiple prescribers, and monitor effectiveness of the treatment. These activities affect the treatment plans of other caregivers. Having a medication-related plan of care shared with those providers and incorporated with care plans developed by other care team members is critical to the overall success of patients reaching their proposed care goals of care.

Today, pharmacists document within proprietary systems that do not export and cannot receive standards-based data. Where care plan information is shared from pharmacy management systems, it is done using proprietary interfaces and free text; there is no standard covering pharmacist care plans. Thus, sharing data requires time consuming redundant data entry which is a major factor limiting care planning. Furthermore, care plan documentation that is free text is inconsistent and incapable of supporting electronic quality measurement and reporting.