Clinical Pharmacist Practitioners

When most people think of pharmacists, they think of those working at their local independent or chain drugstore, but apothecarists (as they were known then) also worked in hospitals as early as the 18^th century. America’s first hospital pharmacist was Jonathan Roberts, who was hired in 1752, according to “American hospital pharmacy from the Colonial period to the 1930s,” an article in the American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy. But hospital pharmacists were relatively rare because there were few hospitals and most Americans were treated at home. As the number of hospitals and other health care facilities grew in the 1920s and 1930s, the demand for hospital pharmacists increased. In 1936, a membership section for hospital pharmacists was established within the American Pharmaceutical Association. Beginning in the 1960s, the participation of hospital pharmacists and other clinical pharmacists in direct patient care increased. Changes in insurance models, a growing elderly population (who typically need more medical services than younger groups), and the passage of the Affordable Care Act (which allowed tens of millions more Americans to have access to health care) have created a need for more clinical pharmacists to work as members of comprehensive medication management teams to better treat patients and improve health outcomes. “There is substantial evidence of patient benefit when pharmacists collaborate closely with primary care and chronic care providers, for example in optimizing the care of patients with diabetes, asthma, or cardiovascular disease,” according to William A. Zellmer in Introduction to Hospital & Health-System Pharmacy Practice.