Is a Single Provincial Pharmacy Program Beneficial for the Advancement of Pharmacy Practice?

摘要

The provincial health authority in Alberta, Alberta Health Services (AHS), is the result of a merger in May 2008 of 9 regional health authorities, the Alberta Cancer Board, the Alberta Mental Health Board, and the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission.1 Since then, die previously existing regional pharmacy departments have become a single pharmacy program. The AHS pharmacy program has clearly benefited pharmacy practice in Alberta, despite challenges during die merger process. The creation of AHS was the largest health care merger in Canadian history, but lessons were taken from previous initiatives to create a provincial program, the most notable being cancer care. From the time when a provincial program was created for cancer care, in 1995, until die creation of AHS, the Alberta Cancer Board was responsible for all aspects of cancer services, including pharmacy, and demonstrated many improvements in pharmacy practice tliat were mirrored in die larger, more recent merger.