Cedars-Sinai Medical Group (CSMG) serves patients through six offices in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. The more than 60 physicians affiliated with the CSMG include primary care physicians and specialists. Clinical pharmacy services for CSMG began in 1993. CSMG clinical pharmacists currently have a wide range of responsibilities, including evaluating drug therapies, developing treatment plans, titrating medications under protocol and educating patients enrolled in disease state management programs (e.g., anticoagulation, dyslipidemia, asthma and hypertension). Additional responsibilities include:

• Analyzing the effectiveness of clinical services provided and reporting patient care outcomes
• Analyzing health plan pharmacy data and identifying opportunities for keeping costs to consumers and to health plans as low as possible
• Participation in the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Clinical Practice Quality Improvement Committees to ensure safe and effective use of medications and management of chronic diseases that require ongoing medication therapy
• Training pharmacy residents and students. (When funding is available, CSMG serves as a training site for a one-year postgraduate Resident in Primary Care Pharmacy Practice.)