Education

ACPE Information

The Ohio Pharmacists Foundation, Inc. is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education as a provider of continuing pharmacy education. "The ACPE Provider Accreditation Program is designed to assure pharmacists, boards of pharmacy, and other members of pharmacy's community of interests, of the quality of continuing pharmaceutical education programs. Quality is assured by evaluating and monitoring capabilities of providers of continuing education programs as well as monitoring and reviewing their continuing education offerings."

As an accredited provider, OPF must adhere to the Criteria for Quality established by ACPE and provide periodic self-assessment reports for review in order to maintain approved-provider status.

Deciphering ACPE Numbers

Continuing pharmacy education (CPE) activities offered by ACPE-accredited providers include a Universal Activity Number (UAN) to identify the activity in promotional materials and in the CPE Monitor. But what does the UAN mean?

For CPE activities offered in 2019 by the Ohio Pharmacists Foundation (OPF), the UAN appears as: 0129-0000-19-XXX-H0x(or L0x)-P(or T). “0129” is the provider number for OPF, and 0000 indicates that OPF is the sole provider. Some CPE activities may have “9999” in the second field, which indicates two or more organizations are jointly providing the activity. The third field refers to the release year, which in this example is 2019, followed by the provider’s numbering system. “H” indicates the activity is home-study, while “L” indicates a live CPE activity. The ending letter indicates the target audience; “P” indicates pharmacists can receive CPE credit, and “T’ indicates the activity is for pharmacy technicians. Some CPE activities are open to both pharmacists and technicians and the UANs will be the same except for the last letter; however, the learning objectives may be different for pharmacists and technicians.

Many state boards of pharmacy require CPE in specific subjects for license renewal, and ACPE has assigned topic designators for CPE activities to assist pharmacists in meeting their CPE requirements. There are currently seven topic designators:

-01- Disease/Drug Therapy Related. Covers all activities that address drugs, drug therapy, and/or disease states.

-02- HIV/AIDS Therapy Related. Covers all activities that address therapeutic, legal, social, ethical, or psychological issues related to the understanding and treatment of patients with HIV/AIDS.

-03- Law. Covers all activities that address federal, state, or local laws and/or regulations affecting the practice of pharmacy.

-04- General Pharmacy Topics. Covers all activities that address topics relevant to the practice of pharmacy other than those included in the classifications of drug therapy related, HIV/AIDS therapy related, and law.

-05- Patient Safety. The prevention of healthcare errors, and the elimination or mitigation of patient injury caused by healthcare errors

-06- Immunizations. Includes all activities related to the provision of immunizations, i.e., recommend immunization schedules, administration procedures, proper storage and disposal, and record keeping. This also includes review for appropriateness or contraindication and identifying and reporting adverse drug events and providing necessary first aid.

-07- Compounding. Includes all activities related to sterile, nonsterile, and hazardous drug compounding for humans and animals. This includes best practices and USP quality assurance standards, environmental test and control, record keeping, error detection and reporting, and continuous quality improvement processes.