Stacy Elder Dalpoas

Her Story

Dr. Stacy Elder Dalpoas received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy and her Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed a PGY1 and PGY2 Pharmacotherapy residency program at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Dalpoas is a board certified pharmacotherapy specialist.

Dr. Dalpoas is a Clinical Pharmacy Outcomes Manager for Novant Health. She works on a variety of initiatives to enhance health equity, ensure optimal pharmacy impact on health outcomes, and manage formulary decisions and implementation. She is responsible for developing, supporting, improving and leading clinical pharmacy services and ensuring the best outcomes of medication therapy. Dr. Dalpoas works on initiatives to reduce clinical variation throughout the health system and precepts pharmacy students and residents from a variety of PGY1 and specialty programs.

Facility

Novant Health is an integrated network of physician clinics, outpatient facilities and hospitals that delivers a seamless and convenient healthcare experience to communities in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The Novant Health network consists of more than 2,300 physicians and over 35,000 employees who provide care at nearly 800 locations, including 15 hospitals and hundreds of outpatient facilities and physician clinics. 

Recent Significant Projects

Dr. Dalpoas has recently worked on a variety of projects facilitating integration of a new, large hospital within her health system. In particular, she has led the effort to integrate the P&T committee and formulary across the new entity and existing health system processes. She has also worked with a team of operational and clinical leaders to facilitate transformation of the health system clinical pharmacy care model to ensure a workflow and daily expectations that ensure optimal medication management.

Initial Involvement in ASHP

I currently serve as a member of the Council on Education and Workforce Development, and I lead a working group in the Section of Pharmacy Practice Leaders Value, Quality and Compliance Section Advisory Group.

Why did you become involved in ASHP?

Like many pharmacy students, I joined ASHP to prepare myself to pursue residency training. As a resident, I joined an advisory group for the New Practitioners Forum and began to learn how the sections and forums both influenced and benefited from the work of ASHP as an organization. Over the years, I stayed involved in advisory groups and also had the chance to influence ASHP policy as part of the House of Delegates. The more involved I became in ASHP, the more deeply I understood the concepts that shape our profession and how to enhance it. I continue to seek opportunities to engage with ASHP because not only do I learn a lot that helps me to be more thorough and connected in my day job, but because I also feel welcomed and engaged in collaborating with others to make our profession the strongest that it can be.

Advice for Someone New to Specialty Area

For someone new to clinical pharmacy leadership, I would recommend looking at every new task and challenge as the next way to gain experience and prepare yourself and those around you to be resilient to the health care environment. Whether or not you completed residency speaks to exposure to certain experiences, but the information you learn during residency may be quickly outdated as changes to health care regulations, legislation, and even disease states occur. Each opportunity to be involved in a new project or initiative is a chance to become the expert on a topic, and there is not always a precedent or a roadmap for how to solve a problem or master a topic. My advice is to lean in, be an example of the level of detail and understanding you want for others to see from pharmacy, and always exercise your best meeting and project management skills to get things done. These skills will go a long way to enhance the pharmacy brand and the precedent in your area of influence.

How would you explain the value of ASHP to a friend or colleague?

ASHP brings value to me as an individual by providing me with opportunities to learn and collaborate with others who have similar responsibilities to my own. When I learn about a new problem or opportunity in any corner of pharmacy practice, I find that ASHP provides me with precious insight that helps me to make the best assessment. They pull together literature, presentations, people, and collective experiences of people with expertise in understanding key problems facing all of us in pharmacy practice. ASHP also provides me with opportunities to grow in the leadership of others through committees, advisory groups and councils.

What is the value of ASHP for the profession?

ASHP supports our profession, and the pharmacists and pharmacy leaders who specialize in health system pharmacy work. The organization advocates for legislation that supports pharmacy practice, reimbursement, and the elevation of scope of practice. ASHP also supports collaboration amongst pharmacists with similar interests, and in many cases it is the only organization that provides networking opportunities (in many forms!) for groups of pharmacists and leaders in specific corners of health system pharmacy. They also collaborate with other pharmacy organizations to present a united front in as many scenarios as possible when taking a stance on national initiatives.