Pharmacist-led therapeutic drug monitoring: implementation of a successful credentialing model

Extended scope of practice roles for pharmacists are relatively new in the Australian hospital setting; however they are increasing in uptake. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) represents a critical area for the involvement of pharmacists. The Alfred Health Pharmacy Department introduced a pharmacist-led TDM program in 2012 for the vancomycin and aminoglycoside antibiotics. Following the development of an in-house credentialing program, nearly 160 pharmacists have been successfully credentialed through the initial program and 95 pharmacists through annual re-credentialing to date. The credentialing program consists of both initial credentialing (including a didactic lecture, pre-reading, multiple choice questions and real-life clinical cases) and annual re-credentialing (including multiple choice questions and real-life clinical cases). This paper aims to describe the innovative credentialing program that has been developed and sustained to meet the needs of a vancomycin and aminoglycoside pharmacist-led therapeutic drug monitoring program.