The mission of managed care pharmacy is to get
the right medication to the right patient, with the
right instructions for use, at the right time, at the right
price, and to achieve the right outcomes. Fortunately
for those in the profession of managed care pharmacy,
the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
(AHRQ) has developed resources available for use by
health care professionals to improve the quality of care
provided to patients. AHRQ is the lead Federal agency
charged with improving the quality, safety, efficiency,
and effectiveness of health care. www.ahrq.gov.
Some resources available to those in managed care
pharmacy include:
- AHRQ National Quality Measures Clearinghouse—
A web-based public repository for evidence-based
quality measures and measure sets.
www.qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov
- Quality Tools through Innovations Exchange—
An Innovation Exchange program created to assist
health care professionals in adopting innovations to
improve the delivery of health care. A highlight of
this program is the Quality Tools section. Quality
Tools offers tools for assessing, measuring, promoting
and improving the quality of health care.
www.innovations.ahrq.gov/qualitytools/
- Tools and Techniques of Improved Medication
Use—A tool developed for those in the health care
community who design medication safety programs
and/or seek information to enhance existing patient
safety efforts. This site includes nearly fifty scientific
studies that focus on improved medication use and
patient compliance, through varied intervention strategies—
implementing disease management approaches,
educating patients and providers, and monitoring
and providing feedback about target populations.
www.aahp.org/content/navigationmenu/medcollab/
medcollab.htm
- Effective Health Care Program—A resource
dedicated to facilitating decision making by publishing
researched-based guides for researchers, clinicians
and consumers that provide information about safety,
side effects and appropriate use of medications for
certain diseases.
http://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.ogv/index.cfm
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Health care practitioners in managed care pharmacy
should make use of the resources developed through
the AHRQ Effective Health Care Program. The goals
of this program are to develop evidence on the effectiveness
and comparative effectiveness of different
treatments and health care interventions of importance
to the Medicare, Medicaid, and State Child Health
Insurance programs. However, the resources developed
may be used in any practice setting.
The Effective Health Care Program produces three
primary products:
- Research reviews: These comprehensive reports draw
on completed scientific studies to make head-to-head
comparisons of different health care interventions.
They also show where more research is needed.
There are two types of research reviews:
- Comparative effectiveness and effectiveness
reviews outline the effectiveness of treatment
options.
- Technical briefs explain what is known, and what
is not known, about new or emerging health care
tests or treatments.
- Original research reports: These reports are based
on clinical research and studies that use health care
databases and other scientific resources and approaches
to explore practical questions about the effectiveness
of treatments.
- Summary guides: These short, plain-language
guides—tailored to clinicians, consumers, or policymakers—
summarize research reviews’ findings on the
benefits and harms of different treatment options.
Consumer guides provide useful background on
health conditions. Clinician and policymaker guides
rate the strength of evidence behind a report’s conclusions.
The guides on medications also contain
basic wholesale price information.
Information on AHRQ resources and other information,
resources, and references in the area of quality
can be found in the Quality Connections area of
the AMCP website at: http://www.amcp.org/amcp.
ark?p=23E2B0DD.
For more information on the
Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy’s work in the
area of quality, please contact Marissa Schlaifer, AMCP
Director of Pharmacy Affairs at mschlaifer@amcp.org. |