Pharmacy and the health-care environment.

The current revolution in the delivery of health care is examined, possibilities for the future are considered, and preparations for meeting the challenges of the future are discussed. The main elements in the revolution involve changes in the economic, business, and technological aspects of health-care delivery. The economic influences have included diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) and the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings legislation as it affects Medicare. Hospitals and hospital pharmacists have had to look closely at their own involvement and take measures to cut costs. The care of the elderly and the indigent and the issue of malpractice will require particular attention. Diversification and incorporation have brought many changes. Among them are the blurring of the traditional roles of pharmacy practice, as evidenced, for example, in the area of home health care. The changes made possible by technology are inseparable from the other current trends, and they add another dimension to health-care considerations--that of moral choices. Furthermore, pharmacy practitioner organizations will have to develop strategies for controlling the destiny of the profession in a corporate atmosphere. Pharmacists can achieve their full potential as society's drug therapy experts if they are flexible and creative enough to apply, in this new environment, the basic principles for which the profession has long stood.