Pharmacy Practice Standards for Outpatient Nephrology Settings

Patients with kidney disease represent a medically complex group of patients with high medication burdens that could benefit from clinical pharmacy services as part of the interdisciplinary care team to optimize medication use. The “Advancing American Kidney Health” executive order includes new value-based reimbursement models to be tested by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation beginning January 2021 and January 2022. Advancing American Kidney Health executive order poses opportunities for the inclusion of comprehensive medication management. Following an iterative process integrating input from a diverse expert panel, published standards, clinical practice guidelines, peer review, and stakeholder feedback, our group developed practice standards for pharmacists caring for patients with kidney disease in health care settings. The standards focus on activities that are part of direct patient care and also include activities related to public health and advocacy, population health, leadership and management, and teaching, education and dissemination of knowledge. These standards are intended to be used by a variety of professionals, from pharmacists starting new practices to practice managers looking to add a pharmacist to the clinical team, to create standardization in services provided.