I am so proud of our Pharmacy Residency Program at Community Regional Medical Center!  We just received notification last week from the American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP) Commission of Credentialing about extending our accreditation for the remainder of our current six year cycle until 2016.

 

Residency Preceptors: Back row from Left to Right: Tim Lopez, Tou Bee Thao, Harlan Husted, Curtis Takemoto, Leonard Valdez, Ron Imoto, Keith Walsh Middle row: Gio Lares, Linda Ly From Row: Amy Royston, Marisa Mendez, Melissa Reger, Alice Robbins, Ann Vu, Staci Anderson

This is great news, as we had a site visit from ASHP in 2010 and received three years of accreditation. The full cycle is six years, but that is very rare to receive, because ASHP likes to ensure that programs are keeping up with their action plans by requesting progress reports at least every three years.

During their last site visit, ASHP identified areas that we can improve upon (because who is perfect?).  Our preceptors have been very understanding and have been involved with the changes that we made to our program to ensure we are providing the best experience for our residency program.

You may want to know, what does a progress report encompass?  I submitted a 104 page document that included a cover sheet, the original survey report findings, and many pages of examples to show how we have addressed any area of improvement.

 

CRMC Pharmacy Residents 2013-2014 From Left to Right: Tamar Lawful, Christina Wong, Karen Lai

Our next site visit will be in 2016.  We have some time before we have to prepare for that one.

If you are curious about what ASHP accreditation is, feel free to visit their website. In addition, ASHP celebrated 50 years of Residency Accreditation this year. A fun fact, over 32,000 pharmacists have completed ASHP-accredited residency programs since 1963 and the number of accredited programs is now 1,577 across the country.




Alice Robbins, PharmD, BCPS
PGY1 Pharmacy Residency Director
Professional Development Specialist
Community Regional Medical Center