Contributor: Mark Eastham, SVP & GM McKesson Pharmacy Optimization

ASHP Midyear is an exciting time where health-system pharmacy pharmacists come together to focus on improving patient care and medication safety. As I walked through the exhibit floor, I couldn’t help but overhear the various discussions about what’s coming next to the hospital pharmacy. Yet despite the discussions about the future, I also overheard questions and concerns that Directors of Pharmacy (DoP) are still struggling to address.

I spoke with a DoP today about her desire to shift focus from administrative and manual tasks, to providing more clinical services. She mentioned how her desire is shared by many others in our profession today, especially amongst her peers at ASHP Midyear. During our conversation she stressed her biggest pain point – managing regulatory and accreditation mandates. Specifically she said that implementing the Joint Commission’s Medication Management Standards has been challenging and labor intensive, taking her time away from direct patient care. Currently she uses multiple sources to get current and accurate information, and agrees that doing so is time consuming.

What struck me about this conversation is that McKesson still has many opportunities to educate DoPs about the resources at their disposal, such as Pharmacy Central and Drug Spend Trend Report. Do DoPs know that using Pharmacy Central and Drug Spend Trend Report can help save valuable program development time? Pharmacy Central contains valuable information to assist with implementing these Medication Management Standards. DoPs still have to focus on managing the drug budget. When I shared with her that one 344-bed hospital was able to save $220K or 3.67% of total drug spend in one year from clinical initiatives driven by resources from Pharmacy Central, metrics gleaned from the Drug Spend Trend Report, and the hands on consulting provided by McKesson Pharmacy Optimization, this was really a big eye-opener for her.

Most pharmacists continue to look for ways to spend more time on patient care. They’re taking important steps, such as attending ASHP Midyear, to learn more about what is out there to help them solve some of these challenges and finding solutions to help them increase their clinical role. They’re asking the right questions and eager to learn more about the invaluable resources that McKesson provides. Indeed, this is an exciting time of year.