Allison Naso

Allison’s Story

Allison Naso, Pharm.D., M.B.A., BCPS, graduated from Ohio Northern University in 2002, where she earned her Doctor of Pharmacy and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology degrees concurrently. Dr. Naso began her pharmacy career at Cleveland Clinic Lutheran Hospital as the first pharmacy clinical specialist at her institution, specializing in internal medicine and behavioral health. She became a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist in 2006.

After nearly a decade of service in clinical pharmacy, Dr. Naso earned a Master in Business Administration degree from Baldwin Wallace University and transitioned to pharmacy administration. Today, Dr. Naso is the Inpatient Pharmacy Manager at Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital. She also serves as a co-chair for the Cleveland Clinic Health System Pharmacy Operations Committee, a group whose members include pharmacy leaders from the organization's ten hospitals, ambulatory pharmacies, and specialty pharmacy.

Dr. Naso was recently appointed to the Section of Inpatient Care Practitioners’ Section Advisory Group for Pharmacy Practice Experiences. She is also a mentor through ASHP Connect, and volunteers as a reviewer for ASHP’s Curriculum Vitae (CV) Review Program. In addition, Dr. Naso has served at Midyear Clinical Meeting as a student poster mentor and as a Member Information Center volunteer. Dr. Naso was also recently accepted to the ASHP Pharmacy Leadership Institute.

Overview of Facility/Health System

Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital is a 171-bed acute-care hospital which became part of the Cleveland Clinic Health System in 2009. The hospital offers a complete continuum of care in a community setting, including emergency, inpatient, critical care, and birthing services. The hospital also offers an array of surgical services, including general surgery, orthopedics, and ophthalmic surgical specialties. Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital is certified as a Primary Stroke Center by the Joint Commission, and it achieved the esteemed Pathway to Excellence® designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center in 2015.

The Department of Pharmacy at Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital operates under a patient-centered practice model in order to meet ever-changing patient needs. Dedicated clinical pharmacists participate in daily, interdisciplinary patient care rounds for the hospital’s internal medicine, emergency medicine, antimicrobial stewardship, and critical care services. Inpatient pharmacist generalists are decentralized to medical/surgical and orthopedic care units, providing patient education, drug therapy interventions, and medication reconciliation services. Through automatic patient enrollment supported by the hospital’s medical staff, pharmacists at Medina Hospital independently manage 100% of vancomycin regimens for adult patients. Pharmacists and residents serve as primary preceptors to more than 40 advanced practice pharmacy students annually; residents and students alike are involved at the bedside as part of the department’s layered learning model. 

Significant Projects

As an inpatient pharmacy manager, Dr. Naso has been instrumental to the development of her department's practice model. She serves in a leadership capacity for a number of work groups, including the department’s Pharmacy Clinical Services team and the hospital’s interdisciplinary Medication Safety Improvement Committee. She has also led her team through a number of major technology additions and upgrades that contribute to safety and provide support to the team's clinical efforts. Most recently, she coordinated the efforts to include photo-capturing software to her department's IV room documentation workflows. Dr. Naso was also integral to the department’s expansion of medication services and pharmacy technologies to the hospital’s newly-acquired off-site ambulatory surgery center.

Since Dr. Naso’s appointment as a co-chair to the Cleveland Clinic Health System Pharmacy Operations Committee in 2015, she has been instrumental in leading operational changes for the CCHS enterprise departments of pharmacy. Under her leadership, the team has spearheaded efforts toward operational standardization for the system's hazardous drug policy, non-sterile compounding procedures, PCA/epidural concentrations, product repackaging guidelines, and various cost-savings initiatives. 

Initial Involvement in ASHP

“I have maintained a basic membership with ASHP for a number of years, but it was through the encouragement of my organization’s pharmacy leadership team that I began to increase my involvement with the organization. After attending a few national ASHP meetings in recent years, I came to realize that the people who develop and provide programming opportunities are working pharmacists with practical, real-life experience – just like me – who share a common goal to advance the profession. From that point on, I knew that I wanted to be involved.”

Advice for Someone New to Your Specialty Area

“When managing a team, your interpersonal relationships with team members are so important. Take the time to get to know the individuals on your team. Ask for their feedback for projects and process changes, and value their input. Set clear expectations and recognize team members’ successes. Make sure you see the whole picture before making snap judgments. Know how to handle a crucial conversation with tact and grace. And finally, acknowledge when you’ve made a mistake, and apologize.”

Value of ASHP

“ASHP offers educational opportunities to meet every need; through ASHP’s high-quality programming, I am even able to earn credits that fulfill my BCPS recertification requirements. But the value of an ASHP membership does not stop with education. ASHP provides seemingly limitless resources for pharmacy practitioners, including networking, mentorship, career services, preceptor tools, drug information, leadership development, residency program guidance, and much more.”

“ASHP is an organization that works tirelessly to advance the practice of pharmacy. Its contributions – spanning from its educational offerings to its advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill – are invaluable to the profession as a whole.”