Building team-based partnerships

Health care in the United States is commonly provided through episodic appointments with fragmented connections between providers. This leaves the patient and their caregivers to make the necessary connections to ensure continuity of care. Throughout the health care system there are ongoing strategies to build connections between health care teams with the goal to improve quality and outcomes while reducing overall cost of care. Pharmacists are found throughout the health care system and can expand access to valuable patient care services by teaming up with others in health care settings and communities.

Team-based partnerships can take place anywhere there is a willing health practitioner and pharmacist who are striving to enhance a patient’s care. They can develop when practitioners and pharmacists work in the same physical facility (e.g., as a medical practice or hospital-based clinic), within communities (e.g., between pharmacists in a community pharmacy and local physician practices), or around the needs of a patient population (e.g., patients who undergo solid organ transplant will often have care teams spread throughout a large geographic area with pharmacists in the community and within the physician practice collaborating together). Team-based partnerships can also be formed through collaborations with community-based organizations such as public health departments and social services organizations in order to expand access to care and services.

In any team, pharmacists can contribute medication and other health-related expertise to improve access to care and health outcomes in their patients. Learn how pharmacists can partner with other healthcare professionals and their communities by accessing powerful resources below.