Improve your Independent Pharmacy With these Key Pharmacy Board Certifications

Your independent pharmacy may be operating well. No major hiccups, strong customer numbers and a robust prescription delivery service, all helping you give patients what they deserve all the while increasing the sense of community created by an independent pharmacy. There is, of course, always room to improve though, and in some cases, those improvements won’t come from better prices or more friendly staff. They come from the diverse nature of the services that you offer.

By expanding what you offer to the local community, you deliver a much wider-reaching benefit to a larger group of people. All you need to do is ensure that you and your team are qualified to do so.

Clinical services are one area where many independent pharmacies are expanding, rather than just focusing on the dispensing of medications, they are instead looking at how else they can give customers an even better level of care. This isn’t something you can just race into though, as mentioned above, you and your team will need to acquire specific qualifications so in this edition of our blog, we look at what certifications you can achieve to help you expand the offering of your independent pharmacy.

Do you need pharmacy board certifications?

You may hold all the relevant certifications to be operating your pharmacy legally, but should you wish to expand your pharmacy into clinical services there will be many opportunities open to you. You will just need to assess which certifications stand to benefit you the most, after all, there are more than 200 certifications and designations available, and you will not require them all!

Each will stand to benefit your pharmacy in different ways and hopefully give you an advantage over other independent pharmacies in the area.

Before you race off to sign up for anything though, assess what the needs are for your pharmacy.

• Are there specific needs for patients that you have realized you do not currently meet?
• Are you often met with repeated requests for the addition of a new service?
• Could your pharmacy accommodate new services and are there sufficient staff to accommodate the increased custom?
• Are you or your team genuinely interested in developing your knowledge in this sector or others?

Once you have put these questions to yourself, you will be able to have a much better understanding of whether you should pursue this avenue.

The Board of Pharmacy certifications available to your pharmacy

The Board of Pharmacy has certifications in a host of specialties including, Emergency Medicine Pharmacy, Geriatric Pharmacy, Infectious Diseases Pharmacy and Critical Care Pharmacy. What you choose to be certified in will depend on the needs of your pharmacy and the rest of the points we mentioned in the previous section. However, below, we have highlighted some of the most common ones so you can decide whether they would be beneficial to your business.

Critical Care Pharmacist

This certification from the BOP is for pharmacists who specialize in critical care work and ensures that they gain the necessary knowledge and expertise to optimize both the safety and the outcomes for patients in critical care. This will include the administering and assessments of treatments for patients as well as adjusting treatments that were needed. At the time of writing, there are more than 3,990 Board Certified Critical Care Pharmacists.

Infectious Diseases Pharmacist

There are currently over 1,500 pharmacists holding this accreditation. It targets pharmacists who specialize in the use of microbiology and pharmacology to develop, implement, and monitor medication regimens that incorporate antimicrobials to optimize patient treatment.

With this certification, pharmacists can validate that they have the specialist knowledge to provide direct patient care, improve overall public health and help develop the relevant therapies.

Geriatric Pharmacist

This program, also known as the BCGP is specifically designed for the pharmacies that specialize in treating elderly patients, especially those that take multiple medications and may suffer from a variety of illnesses.

With this certification, a pharmacist can validate that they have the specific advanced knowledge and skills to give older patients the best level of care and reduce the possibility of complications stemming from their health conditions. There are almost 5,000 pharmacists now holding this certification.

Pediatric Pharmacist

For pharmacists who focus on patients under 18, this certification helps to show that pharmacists are certified in identifying, treating, and monitoring conditions that are unique to children. This certification is particularly valuable as it endorses the pharmacist's skills to deal with even the youngest patient. There are almost 2000 pharmacists that currently have this certification.

Psychiatric pharmacist

With mental health becoming more prominent, the level of services available is still not sufficient to help those who need it. By obtaining this certification pharmacists are not only able to gain valuable experience in prescribing the relevant medications but can also help educate patients about their mental health and offer guidance and advice. With the increased knowledge of mental health, you will also find that you have more of a voice on an important issue and may be able to help force change in your community.

What other certifications are there for pharmacists?

We covered five of the most known certifications above but there are plenty more that all are part of the Board of Pharmacy offering. You could see you or your team certified as the following:

• Transplant Pharmacist
• Pharmacotherapy Specialist
• Nuclear Pharmacist
• Sterile Compounding Pharmacist
• Cardiology Pharmacist
• Ambulatory Care Pharmacist
• Nutrition Support Pharmacist
• Oncology Pharmacist
• Emergency Medicine Pharmacist

In some instances, you may not believe they are required for your pharmacy, and that is fine, it would be foolish to expect every independent pharmacy to acquire every certification. It would be detrimental to the business as you would simply be spread too thin and also have to reassess your budgets to accommodate staff, equipment and more.

These certifications are the ones offered by the Boards of Pharmacy the esteemed, high-level accreditation for pharmacists but there are also other certificates you can obtain via other pharmacy organizations and they will be covered in a future blog.

How do I obtain these Board of Pharmacy certifications for my independent pharmacy?

Each certification has specific criteria that you must meet in order to be eligible. Specific qualifications must already be held as well as relevant experience in particular areas of being a pharmacist.

You will be required to apply at a cost of $600 for a first-time application to any of the specialist certifications, however, should a retake be needed, the fee is then reduced to $300.

To be recertified, you would be required to pay $400 with a retake fee of $200. In addition, there is an annual certification maintenance fee of $125.

These costs cannot be helped and will not only give you and your team the added benefit of being certified in select specialisms but also give you the chance to promote your pharmacy to a wider range of patients.

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