SUSTAINED Services Implementation & Org Culture

SUSTAINED Services Implementation & Org Culture
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The importance of organizational culture in any industry, including pharmacy, cannot be overstated. Recent attention has been devoted toward implementation science in pharmacy. Implementation science helps us look beyond merely developing a service but also sustaining it so that it remains viable for the pharmacy business and helpful to patients for extended periods of time. Concurrently, innovation is necessary to identify new opportunities to meet unmet patient needs and leverage these opportunities into win-win situations for all pharmacy stakeholders. Innovation is one of the main pillars in measuring an organization’s culture profile.

Turner et al conducted a sophisticated analysis of innovativeness in a community pharmacy medication management program.1 The findings suggested that the implementation culture and climate of the pharmacy are positively associated with implementation versus non-implementation in a community pharmacy enhanced services network. They also found a positive impact of innovation-value fit and program reach (the proportion of the target population that received the intervention, in this case, a comprehensive medication review, or CMR).

The study supported the use of organizational theory of innovation implementation effectiveness over broader environmental factors or structural characteristics (eg, pharmacy type, size, and location) in determining sustained implementation of the medication review service. The authors stressed that innovation and organizational culture are modifiable factors and are thus more salient than those that are non-modifiable. Pharmacists and pharmacy managers in particular can read up on organizational theory and implementation science. Moreover, there are many things in their own control, regardless of the organization for whom they work. Impacting culture is not an easy or necessarily quick thing to do, but we need more pharmacists involved in the front lines of change.

Additional information about Organizational Culture and Behavior and Entrepreneurship and Innovation can be found in Pharmacy Management: Essentials for All Practice Settings, 4e. If you or your institution subscribes to AccessPharmacy, use or create your MyAccess Profile to sign-in to Pharmacy Management: Essentials for All Practice Settings, 4e. If your institution does not provide access, ask your medical librarian about subscribing.

1Turner K, Trogden JG, Weinberger M, Stover AM et al. Testing the organizational theory of innovation implementation effectiveness in a community pharmacy medication management program: A hurdle regression analysis. Implement Sci. 2018;13:105.

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Go to the profile of Shane Desselle
about 5 years ago

How important is organizational culture in developing and sustaining services? Have you worked in pharmacies with markedly different cultures?