APhA Policy Manual

Measuring the Quality of Patient Care

QUALITY ASSURANCE

APhA believes that quality assessment measures must evaluate the accessibility, acceptability, and technical quality of pharmacy services, as well as the patient-centered and economic outcomes of patient care. These measures must consider the perspectives of patients, pharmacists, and other health care providers.
APhA believes quality assessment measures of patient care should be tested for validity and reliability in various pharmacy practice settings prior to widespread application.
APhA should develop tools and/or programs that enable pharmacists to apply quality assessment measures to their delivery of patient care.
APhA should promote efforts to educate patients, pharmacists, other health care providers, payers, policy makers, and other interested parties on the appropriate use of quality assessment measures to evaluate and improve the delivery of patient care.