Susan Flaker

Her Story 
Dr. Susan M. Flaker received her PharmD degree from University of Health Sciences (formally St Louis College of Pharmacy). In 2016 she received her MBA from Webster University in St Louis MO and in 2021 completed ASHP's Pharmacy Leadership Academy.

Dr. Flaker serves as the Director of Pharmacy for the SEMN region. She has the rank of Instructor In Pharmacy for Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. Dr. Flaker is also providing leadership learning experiences for the residents in the residency program.

Facility
Mayo Clinic Health System is comprised of 16 hospitals throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin. Dr. Flaker has assumed the responsibility for five of those hospitals in the South East Minnesota area. The focus on her hospitals are primarily small and rural facilities or community hospitals, the largest being licensed for 80 beds. The practice provides oncology infusions at four different sites, infusion centers at 6 sites and surgical services in all five hospitals.

Recent Significant Projects
Dr. Flaker has worked on many significant projects in her time with Mayo Clinic. She continues to have the pleasure of leading pharmacist working on the use of Rules Based Order Verification to assist with pharmacist verification of orders, they have completed two studies and are currently mapping out a third. In addition to this Dr. Flaker has done a lot of work to provide high level stewardship of medications resources in the pharmacy, an example of which is using predictive modeling to determine the flu vaccine order numbers to minimize the amount of over ordering.

Involvement in ASHP
Dr. Flaker is currently on ASHP's Section of Pharmacy Practice Leaders Education Steering Committee. In addition she was just appointed to ASHP Section of Digital and Telehealth Practitioner Executive Committee.

Why did you become involved in ASHP?
I started to get involved in ASHP to start making connections with others outside of my direct work area. I felt it was important to make these connections to others to continue to stay current and learn best practices within pharmacy. I also like the ability for my thoughts and ideas to be heard by others in pharmacy. Getting involved gives you the ability to help shape the practice of pharmacy in a meaningful way. It is a wonderful place to connect with people from the profession and allows you to grow and develop new ideas in a collaborative.

Advice for Someone New to Specialty Area
As someone enters into leadership I would say that it is important for them to realize that their main area of focus is the people that they manage every day. As you work with your employees you should not shy away from providing feedback, both positive and negative, of the people you supervise. When you do this the staff are more productive and willing to take on change that you would like to implement to help improve the workflow. By focusing on the staff it allows you to fix their problems and also focus on issues that can drive the practice of pharmacy forward because you have a strong staff that is willing to handle the day to day.

How would you explain the value of ASHP to a friend or colleague?
ASHP is the best resource to help you solve problems that come up day to day in your career. This could be something that has happened to a patient, how to deal with regulatory changes or even workflow problems. ASHP has created a place where collective knowledge can be shared by others. If you can't find the answer to the question you are looking for, through ASHP connect it provides a location for you to ask questions and seek advice from other pharmacy professionals. This is all on top of the CE that comes with your membership.

What is the value of ASHP for the profession?
ASHP is a place to connect, learn and advocate for pharmacy. It is a great place to connect with pharmacy practitioners across the country to learn how they have handled different challenges that we all face on a daily basis. Using collective thought helps us come up with the best solutions to challenges we are facing in health care. Learn, ASHP has a wealth of CE on multiple different topics, however it also helps you learn to be a pharmacist, through the residency programs, as well as get additional certifications as technicians and pharmacists. These certifications allow pharmacists and technicians whose career might have already started, to learn more about the challenges and changes that are affecting pharmacy on a daily basis. Finally advocacy, ASHP gives the entire practice of pharmacy a voice. Although an idea might start with one person it takes many people pushing for the same collective goal to truly move change forward. They have done this with Pharmacy Residency programs as well as getting pharmacists paid for Medication Therapy Management visits. I believe that ASHP can take the single person's idea and help move it forward to truly change the practice of health care in the United States.