A. Introduction

As a front line, the pharmacist in the community setting would have the authority and autonomy in managing the patient’s medication and held accountable for their therapeutic outcome. The need to achieve optimum pharmaceutical care has been recognized and pharmacists within the community took initiative to promote good pharmacy practice that would lead to the intended outcomes of safety, quality, cost-effectiveness, improvement and reliability.

B. Aim

The HCAC has developed community pharmacy standards by focusing on a system-based approach to ensure the services provided to the community are of appropriate quality and they can be used as a reference that will be aiding the profession and highlighting its key role in the healthcare system.

C. Scope & Framework

The community pharmacy standards are developed in line with the GPP (Good Pharmacy Practice FIP/WHO guideline) which emphasizes the role of the pharmacist and its contribution to health improvement and helping patients with health problems to make the best use of their medicines.

The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) is an organization with a worldwide focus and it has had a key role in implementing the philosophy of pharmaceutical care into community pharmacy practice. FIP first adopted the guidelines for Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) in 1993. These guidelines were developed as a reference to be used by national pharmaceutical organizations, governments, and international pharmaceutical organizations to set up national standards of Good Pharmacy Practice. During the last years, FIP has been in the process of updating the GPP Guidelines. For that purpose, it produced a Reference guide on Good Pharmacy Practice in 2012. FIP has been closely cooperating with World Health Organization (WHO) in GPP standard development.

The framework is aligned with the following guiding principles:

• Availability of pharmaceutical services, including: Supply, information, and workforce skill.
• High quality and evidence-based health care.
• Patient safety.
• Health promotion.
• Patient Welfare.
• Code of ethics and professional conduct.

D. Eligible Institutions:

Any Community Pharmacy may apply for Community Pharmacy Accreditation program if it meets all the following criteria:

• Is in compliance with applicable local laws and regulations and has a valid licensure by the approved entity.
• Has been providing community pharmacy services for at least six months or more prior to the time of survey.

E. Organization of the Standards Manual

The standards are organized into key functions referred as “clusters”.

Cluster 1: Leadership and Management

Cluster 2: Patient Right

Cluster 3: Human Resource Management

Cluster 4:Pharmaceutical Process Management

• Procurement
• Inventory
• Storage
• Dispensing
• Compounding
• Patient & Family Counseling
• Community Service

Cluster 5: Environmental Health and Safety

Cluster 6: Quality Improvement

Cluster 7: Information Management.

For each cluster, there is an intent statement that assists the pharmacy staff to understand the standards and a list of the key documents that are required for review by the surveyors. In each cluster, every standard is listed followed by the measurable elements, and survey process. The survey process is identical to what the surveyors will look for to determine how to score the standard.

F. Classification of standards

A number of standards have been identified as essential according to the following criteria:

• central organizational processes;
• processes requiring workforce competencies;
• processes with immediate impact on patient safety and clinical effectiveness;
• address laws and regulations