ASHP PROPOSES NAME CHANGE TO REFLECT GROWTH OF MANAGED CARE, HOME CARE

ASHP PROPOSES NAME CHANGE TO REFLECT GROWTH OF MANAGED CARE, HOME CARE in the U.S. health care delivery system. The American Society of Hospital Pharmacists board has proposed to rename the association the American Society of Health-system Pharmacists in recognition of the changing membership composition of the group, ASHP President Paul Abramowitz announced Dec. 6 during the group's annual mid-year meeting in Atlanta. The proposed name change takes into account the fact that the "most rapidly growing segments of our membership are in areas such as managed care and home care, reflecting the dramatic transformation in health care delivery that is putting more consumers in coordinated systems of care," Abramowitz said. Hospitals are "often becoming the centers of coordinated care networks that include services for ambulatory and home care patients as well as acute care patients," he explained. The name change will be put before the ASHP House of Delegates meeting in June 1994 in Reno, Nev. and for membership endorsement via a mail ballot in the summer of 1994. If approved, the change would take effect Jan. 1, 1995. Last year, in recognition of the changing health care environment, ASHP began the development of the Section of Home Care Practitioners, which will become fully operational in January. The section will hold its first annual home care meeting and exhibits Aug. 20-22, 1994 in Chicago. ASHP's board also in November approved in principle the creation of the Section of Clinical Specialists to replace the current Specialty Practice Groups. The association is currently conducting a needs assessment study in managed care pharmacy practice through its Center on Managed Care Pharmacy, created last June. The creation of these new groups and the name change are the recommendations of the Steering Committee on Organizational Structure, which intends to make additional recommendations before its charter expires in June 1994, ASHP said.