Developing Partnerships between an Accountable Care Organization and a College of Pharmacy to Benefit Students and Patients

POSTER PRESENTATIONS

Objective. To identify the barriers, facilitators and lessons learned regarding one South Florida college of pharmacy’s endeavor to partner with a local Accountable Care Organization (ACO). Background. In 2012 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) authorized ACO formation to improve safety, costs, and quality of patient care. Pharmacists deliver high quality care in traditional fee for service models, but may be underutilized within ACOs and be unprepared for the ACA’s emergent mandates. It is unknown how higher-education institutions and ACOs may best partner to ensure future healthcare providers are ready to practice within the revolutionized healthcare system. Methods. This non- randomized, qualitative study looks at partnership stakeholders, including ACO staff and college of pharmacy faculty members, who were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews to discuss motivations, roles and actions in partnership development. Transcripts of interviews will be coded to identify themes, common threads and major events. Results. Nine stakeholders were sought for interviews; of these, four college of pharmacy faculty members, one faculty administrator, one ACO physician, and one ACO practice staff members participated. One ACO chief executive officer and one physician declined to be interviewed. Results of this ongoing study will be submitted to the peer-reviewed American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy (AJHP) for publication. Conclusion. This description of partnership development may help other centers of higher healthcare education collaborate with ACOs to develop professionals prepared to practice within the new ACA’s mandates. Grants. None