September 2017
Dear Members of ASHP’s Section of Pharmacy Practice Managers,
As we kick off our year and our Section Advisory Groups begin meeting, I reflect on the rapidly changing healthcare environment and the impact this has on traditional pharmacy enterprise structures and processes. With mergers and acquisitions changing the landscape of health-systems, pharmacy structures are shifting from a department structure to an enterprise structure. The concept of “systemness”, where systems continue to morph and grow with the addition of new hospitals and ambulatory settings, is a consistent theme across of the country. Traditional structures that support pharmacy practice in health-systems such as P&T Committees, safety programs, and business functions now encompass a much larger footprint across many care settings with differing patient care needs and reimbursement structures. As leaders, we are challenged to apply creative models and business acumen to care for our patients, our customers, and our teams.
How we find ways to improve patient care, define and grow value, and identify critical opportunity points are topics at the forefront of the Section of Pharmacy Practice Managers. We have structured our Section Advisory Groups (SAGs) around “systemness”, focusing on topics such as evaluating system-wide leadership roles beyond the Chief Pharmacy Officer and the optimal structure of pharmacy enterprises in the multi-hospital settings. The group’s charges include the evaluation and creation of resources for the business of the pharmacy enterprise, innovations in management, and patient care quality. We also are exploring leadership and management skills needed to be successful in today’s healthcare environment to supplement and expand on current ASHP and ASHP Foundation programs. As a section we are committed to providing resources to our members that address long term strategic needs as well as addressing issues that arise with little to no advanced warning, such as the site of care challenges that drive patients away from our service areas.
As noted, our Section’s groups and committees strive to develop tools to support practice managers as we lead our organization’s medication use processes into these new paradigms. Section members every year help build the framework for the Conference for Pharmacy Leaders. This year the Conference includes sessions on topics such as:
- 21st Century Patient Care: Leading Responsibly in a New Era of Medication Management
- Leadership Considerations for the Future — Managing the Dynamic Environment of Healthcare
- Revenue Cycle Management — Integrating Systems Optimizing Standardization, and Ensuring Reimbursement, and
- Stewardship — An Imperative Leadership Philosophy to Drive Medication Use Excellence
Section members also create a number of CE webinars that are available on-demand on topics to help us learn from one another on topics to support our practice advancement. Topics available include controlled substance diversion management, opioid use dashboards, health care apps, revenue cycle management, and drug expenditures forecasting.
As leaders we must decide which processes and services are standardized, and which ones can be unique to individual hospitals. This balancing act of creating “systemness” while also achieving excellence in the day to day management of the pharmacy enterprise are perpetual challenges facing us all. Bringing all of these demands together effectively will continue to position pharmacy as a high impact and high value component to our organizations. It will position us well to tackle larger societal and organization needs such as effective population health management. The opportunities and examples in the realm of population health management are well described in AJHP’s September 15th edition dedicated to population health management.
In closing, I would like to recognize Kristi Gullickson for her election to Chair Elect, and Robert Granko for his election to Director-at-Large, for the Section of Pharmacy Practice Managers. Both leaders bring exceptional experience and ideas to the Section and I look forward to working with them. Also, I would like to reflect on the impact of the recent natural disasters impacting our country, and thank the healthcare and relief workers for taking care of people in a great time of need
Best regards,
Jennifer Tryon, Pharm.D, M.S., FASHP
Chair, Section of Pharmacy Practice Managers (2017-2018)
Associate Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer, Wake Forest Baptist Health
sections@ashp.org