Sarah Deines

Sarah’s Story

Dr. Deines received her Pharm.D. degree from Oregon State University College of Pharmacy. She completed her PGY1 residency at Legacy Health System in Portland, Oregon.

Dr. Deines is currently serving on the SAG on Compensation and Practice Sustainability. She also served as a delegate for the State of Oregon to the ASHP House of Delegates in June 2016.

Facility

Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center (VGMHC) is a federally qualified health center serving the Washington and Yamhill county areas, west of Portland, Oregon. VGMHC provides care to approximately 40,000 low-income, uninsured or underinsured members of the community each year via a team-based care model with integrated clinical pharmacy and behavioral health services. The clinics also serve as training sites for pharmacy, medical and physician assistant students as well as pharmacy and medical residents.

Recent Significant Projects

Dr. Deines has been involved with development of the VGMHC Pharmacy and Therapeutic Committee, with an emphasis on evaluating the safety of efficacy of medication prescribing within the clinic system. As manager of the clinical pharmacy services team, she has worked to standardize clinical pharmacy documentation and outcomes reporting for the team. She is also collaborating with physician and nursing leadership to develop a comprehensive diabetes treatment and prevention program for the organization.

Becoming Involved in ASHP

“As a student I had the opportunity to serve on the Commission on Affiliate Relations. Through that experience I had the opportunity to work with pharmacists from around the country, and realized the passion and commitment of ASHP members in advancing the practice of pharmacy. Since then, I have been active in the Oregon Society of Heath System Pharmacists, and have sought opportunities to be involved in ASHP, in order to network with other pharmacist and continue to explore ways to improve patient care by integrating clinical pharmacy services in primary care settings.”

Advice for Someone New to Specialty Area

“Identify practice leaders in your area (geographically and by practice type) and build relationships with them to learn from their successes and failures. Many talented pharmacists have encountered the challenges you will face and learning from them will help you achieve greater success. There is too great a need for high quality patient care for pharmacists to spend a lot of time developing a tool or service that already exists.”

Value of ASHP

“I appreciate the opportunity to learn from leaders in ambulatory care as well as in residency program development. When I need support in either of these areas, I can always turn to ASHP for answers and ideas. ”

“ASHP is advancing the quality of patient care, through training pharmacists and facilitating conversations between pharmacists to share best practices and provide resources to the greater pharmacy community.”