Pharmacy as a crucial hub for hospital-territory continuity
Because of its role as an interface with clinicians, researchers, management, patients, hospital pharmacy can be the driving force behind a new way of doing health care
by Andrea Zovi *
Key points
The world of healthcare is daily subjected to severe economic constraints, which inevitably tend to affect both the choices of operators and the quality of the service offered, and is faced with the pressing need to reformulate choices and programmes. This challenge, because of its economic importance and its social value, can only be met with the support of adequate tools that are able to read and interpret the complex intertwining of the actors involved and are thus able to reduce the gap between growing desires and limited availability to satisfy them.
A complex balance
The organisation of the Service, as a whole, is often in a state of flux. The balance is held by the sense of responsibility of many operators and their desire to increase their skills, including through the multi-professional confrontation that is inherent in the modern approach to treatment and care. The point of view of hospital pharmacy and territorial pharmaceutical services analyses the health service in its entirety and in its daily difficulties, placing the pharmacist at the heart of the system. The pharmacist as the bearer of analysis and knowledge encompassing many aspects of the patient pathway, from taking charge to hospital-territory continuity.
Pharmacy as a hub
In view of its multiple functions, hospital pharmacy and territorial pharmaceutical services is certainly the most significant hub of the health organisation: it manages and dispenses drugs, provides pharmacological advice to doctors, provides information and health promotion to patients. In these years of strong growth - in volume and complexity - of health needs, hospital pharmacy can become a true 'therapeutic kairos'. Unlike the concept of 'chronos', which indicates linear time, kairos represents qualitative time, the significant moment that requires choice and timeliness.
Because of its role as an interface with various players (clinicians, researchers, management, patients), hospital pharmacy can be the driving force behind a new way of doing health. Those who work daily in hospital pharmacy are aware of this. How much? This is the question that will be answered at the Kairos event in Milan, scheduled for 22 and 23 May. Hospital pharmacy and territorial pharmaceutical services, with their expertise, ensure that the right drug reaches the right patient, at the right time. This is the 'therapeutic Kairos' of which the pharmacist is the guardian.
* Secretary SIFO Lombardy Region
