Fleetwood Project

With the change in professional pharmacy practice to the pharmaceutical care model, pharmacists and pharmacy organizations realized the importance of acquiring evidence of the impacts these services have on patient care. The American Society of Consultant Pharmacists Research and Education Fmmdation began a research program, the Fleetwood Project, to demonstrate the impacts of consultant pharmacy services on patient outcomes and health care costs. The Fleetwood Project is an initiative that arose from within the profession to support change in professional practice in contrast to the practice responding to the next external mandate. 

The Fleetwood Project consisted of three phases of research. The first phase quantified the cost of medication-related problems in nursing facilities and estimated the value of consultant pharmacists in these settings. This phase determined that drug regimen review conducted by consultant pharmacists improved patients outcomes by 43% and saved 3.6 billion a year by avoiding medication-related problems. ... 

The goal of the second research phase was to transition consultant pharmacists from performing retrospective chart reviews to performing prospective evaluations in which the pharmacists intervene in the delivery of care. The settings in which the Fleetwood Project model was implemented increased clinical pharmacist decision making, increased pharmacists interactions with patients and families, and improved corrammication among patients health care team members. ... 

Incorporating findings from the first and second phases, the third phase aimed to identify pharmacist-sensitive outcomes. During this phase, patient outcomes most sensitive to pharmacist interventions were identified and quantified. Once these were identified, the Fleetwood Project model was modified to highlight these specific conditions and processes associated with... 

American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, Research and Education Foundation. The Fleetwood project research initiative, www.ascpfoundation.org/ programs/prog fleetwood.htm, accessed July 12, 2002. 

A clear picture of the enormous impact being made by consultant pharmacists in achieving optimal therapeutic outcomes and reducing medication-related problems is emerging from the Fleetwood Project—ASCP Foundation s landmark three-phase study to document the value of pharmacists services. The Fleetwood Phase I study found that consultant pharmacists drug regimen... 

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