It is the policy of the state to encourage committees made up of Tennessee's licensed pharmacists to candidly, conscientiously and objectively evaluate their peers' professional conduct, competence and ability to practice pharmacy and their personal conduct as it relates to the performance of their professional duties. It is further the policy of the state to encourage pharmacists to implement continuous quality improvement programs and quality assurance programs to identify and evaluate quality-related events, reduce medication-related errors, generate data useful to studying the causes of medication errors and improve patient care. The state further recognizes that confidentiality is essential to effective functioning of peer review committees, continuous quality improvement programs and quality assurance programs and to continued improvement in patient safety and patient care.