Pharmacy services across the continuum: Leveraging opportunities and organisational strategies to improve market competitiveness

Medication utilisation is one of the ubiquitous modalities of medical interventions in our healthcare system and an area of high complexity and high cost for many patient populations. Assessment of the use of medications both in acute and ambulatory care settings has become increasingly important for hospitals and health systems as organisations become larger and more integrated and must manage the payer and external provider changes in the marketplace. The COVID-19 pandemic emphasised the critical nature of the drug supply chain for essential medications and the strategic imperative for health systems to have an enterprise-wide medication use strategy. This strategy must ensure evidence-based use of medications to improve patient safety, outcomes, effective cost management, as well as secure and expand revenue-generating patient care services to support the overall health and sustainability of the organisation. Essential to accomplishing these goals is having a pharmacy executive as part of the health systems’ enterprise strategic planning to ensure that patients’ clinical needs, organisational revenue cycle, and new ventures are integrated across the continuum to optimise patient outcomes and patient retention.