Pharmacists in the Laboratory Space: Friends or Foes?

There are nearly 60,000 community pharmacies in the United States today. In addition to being sources of prescriptions and medications, they're also often a site for wellness visits, vaccinations, acute illness diagnosis and treatment, as well as monitoring of chronic disease. Pharmacies often offer a convenient alternative to physician offices because of their accessible locations and extended service hours. Approximately 18% of pharmacies in the U.S. have CLIA-waived status, which means they can perform any of the approximately 120 CLIA-waived tests. Many pharmacists help patients make drug dosage decisions in specialized centers such as coumadin in diabetes clinics. With pharmacists performing and interpreting more laboratory tests, what does this mean for the clinical laboratory community? Do pharmacists receive the proper training to perform and interpret laboratory tests? And how do we ensure the quality of testing?