Leveraging a clinical pharmacist as part of an interprofessional addiction medicine consult service: Supporting and spreading best practices

Beginning in March 2023, we integrated a clinical pharmacist into our interprofessional addiction medicine consult service (ACS) to improve care at our hospital and expand substance use disorder best practices regionally. Here, we share experiences from our first 18 months, describing the ACS pharmacist role and highlighting advances at the level of pharmacy care, the hospital, and the region. The ACS pharmacist enriched ACS care quality; built and implemented order sets and workflows; educated the interdisciplinary workforce; and provided training and technical assistance across regional hospitals. Healthcare leaders should consider integrating ACS pharmacists to advance and spread hospital-based addiction care.