Amanda J. Place, PharmD, BCACP ([email protected]), is an ambulatory care clinical pharmacy specialist at the Ascension St. Vincent Joshua Max Simon Primary Care Center in Indianapolis, Indiana. In addition, in 2006, she and her business partners opened an independent community pharmacy in East Central Indiana, where she practices part-time as a community pharmacist and provides services like medication therapy management and group home medication consulting, while also implementing programs like medication synchronization. Place received her Pharm.D. from Butler University. She provides pharmaceutical care, including medication therapy management, pharmacogenomics consults, and disease management to Primary Care Center patients and coordinates the value-based care work for the patients of this clinic as well. She also serves as an educational resource for the medical residents, acts as a preceptor for pharmacy residents, and is the ambulatory care PGY2 pharmacy residency program director and the founding residency program director of the PGY1 community-based pharmacy residency program at Ascension St Vincent Indianapolis. In her practice, she also focuses on outpatient medication safety and quality improvement. The medication safety program that she helped to initiate was recognized by the Institute for Safe Medications Practices with an award for excellence in 2017. Amanda is an active member of ASHP and has served as a Director-at-Large for the Section of Community Pharmacy Practitioners for the past 2 years. She also serves as as a practitioner surveyor for several community-based PGY1 residency programs annually.
Pharmacists practicing in the community setting are some of the most accessible healthcare providers. Community pharmacists provide pharmaceutical care to our patients, while advocating on an ongoing basis to improve their health outcomes. Community pharmacy practice has a richly diverse spectrum of opportunities for patient care, including comprehensive medication management and implementation of collaborative practice agreements and state-based protocols that facilitate access to care in a patient-centered, safe, and convenient manner.
While growth and expansion of community-based patient care opportunities has been significant, many challenges and barriers remain. ASHP has been instrumental in advocacy, whether addressing challenges like DIR fees and data hacks or professional hurdles like pharmacists’ provider status. The Section of Community Pharmacy Practitioners has directed efforts towards education, growth, and support for community-based practitioners. My experience serving as Director-at-Large for this Section over the past 2 years has emphasized to me the positive impact of this organization on the community pharmacy practice environment.
My roles as the community-based PGY1 pharmacy residency director at our institution and as a practitioner surveyor for other residency programs have also highlighted how important it is for us to work together to advance our community-based practice. It has also emphasized how essential it is to “pay it forward”, encouraging growth in the next generation of community-based practitioners. I am honored to be nominated to serve as Section Chair, and I look forward to working with members of this Section and the pharmacy community to continue to advance community pharmacy practice.