Pharmacy Angle caught up with the Director of Pharmacy Services at Capstone Health Alliance (Concord, NC), Fred Pane, RPh, FASHP, FABC, who's a busy man as he works with nearly three hundred acute care hospitals and close to twenty thousand non-acute entities like ambulatory surgery centers, long term care, and private practices. 

Fred has a wealth of knowledge he's accumulated over his many years within the hospital pharmacy industry, and brings various perspectives from having been in a hospital setting to now working for Capstone. He has become the "go-to" person when when it comes to understanding legislation and policies that are coming from Washington, but for this video, we focused our conversation on a number of topics including drug shortages, costs, and changes he's seen first-hand within the industry over the years. 

Shawn Wood, MBA, CPHT, 340B ACE, is Director of System 340B Oversight and Compliance for Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH), overseeing hospitals’ onsite 340B Program or split-billing, 340B advocacy and overall 340B Program compliance. BILH’s 340B program is a large program with significant regulatory, compliance, financial, IS, and workflow complexities that supports its financial health, which he supports.

Shawn has 14 years of experience in the 340B Program and more than 20 years in hospital pharmacy settings. His career began as a pharmacy technician, then pharmacy supply chain and then moved to administering the 340B Program. His 340B expertise spans hospital based and contract pharmacy programs, pharmacy supply chain and includes, a Pharmacy Technician Certification, an advanced certification for 340B or ACE, a Bachelors in Healthcare Management from Cambridge College and an MBA from UMass-Boston. He has also spoken nationally at the 340B Conference on best practice and, twice locally at Massachusetts Society of Health-System Pharmacists (MSHP) on the expanding role of Pharmacy Technicians and the 340B Program. Most recently he received from MSHP the
Technician of the Year Award for his work on Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s 340B Program.

Pharmacy Angle didn't have to take a trip to the North Pole to visit with this jolly fellow. Instead, the Angle's Greg Herring visited with Dana Darger, Director of Pharmacy for Monument Health Rapid City Hospital (Rapid City, South Dakota) at the Health Connect Partner's Conference. 

With a career that spans over four decades, Dana shares his insights on not only his professional journey but also his obsersations when it comes to the evolution of the role of a pharmacy director, the pharmacy's shift from a cost to a profit center, staff shortages and technician training, and much more. 

With more than 15 years of experience in the pharmacy field, Angela Nash, CPHT-ADV has proven to be a passionate, knowledgeable, and effective leader. Her diverse pharmacy background includes sterile compounding, project management, team development, and supply chain management.  Angela has worked with pharmacy technicians from across the country to assist them in discovering their ideal career paths in pharmacy, assessing their career values and goals, and ultimately creating a strategic plan for obtaining their dream job and enjoying a rewarding and fulfilling career. Angela has successfully implemented numerous cost-saving initiatives, reduced inventory waste, developed medication management education for the nursing staff, and improved standards of practice to prevent diversion.

Recently, Ken Perez, Healthcare IT, marketing & policy consultant and former Vice President of Healthcare Policy and Government Affairs for Omnicell, Inc. moderated a round table conversation with three pharmacy leaders - including interestingly two sisters - who have pursued different paths during their pharmacy career journeys. 

The panel included:

Nicolle Rychlick, Director of Advisory Services at Premier, Inc.

Janelle Rychlick, Medical Science Liaison Oncology at Novartis Oncology 

Nilesh Desai, Chief Pharmacy Officer for Baptist Health System

Its our hope that their experiences and insight might provide you with valuable information when determining what is the right path for your career. 

Dwight de Vera is the Vice President of Healthcare Strategy at Inmar Intelligence. Previously, Dwight was the founder and CEO of RxTransparent which was acquired by Inmar in 2020. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Supply Chain and Information Systems from the Pennsylvania State University.

Dwight is recognized as an expert in healthcare analytics and drug supply chain. He is the recipient of many healthcare and technology industry awards and his work has been featured in several industry publications. Dwight is frequently asked to represent the drug dispensing community at regulatory meetings and industry events specially focused on drug data standards and the Drug Supply Chain Security Act or DSCSA.

While the deadline for enforcement has been postponed until November 2024, hospitals and pharmacists need to continue working towards DSCSA compliance. We invited Neal Long, CEO of ConsortiEX to explain the changes that are being implemented, the in's/out's of the scope of DSCSA, what these changes mean for pharmacist, and his recommendations for working towards implementation. 

Laura Monroe-Duprey, PharmD, BSPharm, is currently Inova Health System’s (IHS) Medication Safety Officer in northern Virginia. Inova Health System is a five-hospital system with ambulatory, primary care and off site urgent and emergency centers for which this role spans. Prior to working at IHS she was the Division Direction of Medication Safety for sixteen hospitals on the west coast of Florida. 

Laura has a comprehensive background in healthcare which includes roles as a pharmacy director, operations manager, pharmacy quality coordinator and clinical pharmacist for small and large community hospitals, a regional pharmacy director, as well as a Chief Quality Officer. She has also been a residency program director (RPD), preceptor and for PGY-1 residents and is the current RPD for a PGY-2 Medication Use Safety and Policy (MUSP) resident and worked as consultant with NECC-MERPS. She has given state and national continuing education presentations on medication safety and error prevention strategies including smart pump library best practices. Her experience spans over thirty years in three states giving her an abundance of knowledge and insight into medication management opportunities.

While at the Health Connect Partner's Pharmacy Conference in Indianapolis, Pharmacy Angle had the opportunity to sit down with Urshila Shah, Executive Director of Pharmacy Services at Saint Joseph's Health in Patterson, New Jersey to get her thoughts on topics, trends, and challenges facing the industry.

Ms. Shah discusses her professional journey that led to her current position, and the evolution of focus for a pharmacy director - from primarily focused on inpatient acute care operations and expense management to now being business strategy leaders that are asked to optimize growth and bring in new revenue. Urshila also provides her thoughts staffing & drug shortages, AI and the use of technology, and much more. 

Dr. Neil Hunter, PharmaD., MBA, BCSCP, is the System Director – Sterile Drug Compounding for Ochsner Health, encompassing oversight for forty-seven hospitals. His practice expertise includes sterile compounding and healthsystem automation. His focus is to automate processes, in a system setting, which allow for a data driven approach to ensure medications are delivered safely, and in a timely manner. 

Nationally, Dr. Hunter serves on the BD Connected Medication Management and SCA Advisory Board’s. In the state of Louisiana, he serves as President-Elect for the LSHP, and as the President of the South-East LSHP local chapter. In this setting, he is an advocate for hospital pharmacist and is striving to increase Louisiana Pharmacist participation in LSHP.