Virginia Society of Health-System Pharmacists

NOMINATION AND ELECTION OF VIRGINIA DELEGATES TO THE ASHP HOUSE OF DELEGATES

All pharmacist ASHP members in Virginia are eligible to nominate, be nominated, and vote for delegates and alternates to represent Virginia at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) 2023 House of Delegates. 

Individuals wishing to nominate themselves or another ASHP member for the slate of candidates are invited to submit names, by 5pm, Friday December 16, 2022, to: https://forms.gle/BCQNqU1tQYGy9h8t7 .   Nominations must be accompanied with a bio not to exceed 300 words which will be used in the ballot.

One (1) delegate for a three (3) year term and up to two (2) alternate delegates for a one (1) year term will be elected.

Duties of Delegates

The Chair of the House of Delegates will conduct a welcome webinar in late February or early March to provide new and returning delegates with an overview of service requirements before participating in the March 2023 virtual House of Delegates. The Chair also regularly communicates with delegates through email messages to alert delegates to upcoming action items.

Regional Delegate Conferences are scheduled April 29-May 2, 2023 and it is recommended that delegates attend one of these sessions.

The House of Delegates will meet on two separate occasions at the 2023 ASHP Summer Meetings, scheduled to be held June 10-14 in Baltimore, MD.     

Additional virtual House of Delegates may be held in May 2023 and November 2023 and/or at additional times, as deemed necessary.

Resources to Help Serve as a Delegate

Please review the ASHP House of Delegates webpage for more information on delegate responsibilities.

The candidate receiving the most votes will become delegate, with the next highest vote receivers elected as alternates.  A simple majority is required for election. 

For further information, please contact the VSHP office at (850) 906-0779 or email contact@vshp.org .

 

***As presented at the VSHP Fall Seminar, November 5, 2022***

The VSHP Pharmacist of the Year is a member with a record of service to the profession of pharmacy, specifically health system pharmacy.  This should include contributions to pharmacy programs within the Commonwealth ,  as well as cooperation and contributions to the health-care team. The awardee should be recognized by the profession as a leader within pharmacy Service to the community. 

This year’s winner is a graduate of the Campbell University School of Pharmacy, with a PGY-1 at Duke and a PGY-2 Internal Medicine, ID, and Academia at Campbell and Duke.  She has a long history of service to the Carilion system, but her nominator focused on her work with pharmacy technicians.  She established a 16-week technician training program to help combat technician shortages in the system. To establish the program, she had to develop internal technician talent and connect with area partners to provide the technician trainees with a well-rounded experience.  Her program has graduated 8 technicians with an 87% retention rate.  All of the technicians that have taken their PTCB exam to date have passed.  Her nominator states “It’s hard to fully describe the impact she has had on these students. She works hard to build a close relationship with each student that allows her to guide and mentor these students through pivotal points in their lives. Many students are looking for career changes, looking get into a healthcare career, or are relatively new to the workforce. She has fully embraced the opportunity she has to impact their lives and their careers, and it has truly made a huge difference in our department!”

Congratulations to VSHP Pharmacist of the Year, Megan Goodwin.

Application for Fellow of VSHP

The application for recognition as a Fellow of VSHP, to honor sustained contribution to VSHP and health-system practice in Virginia, is now available on the VSHP web site.

The Fellow of VSHP award was created to recognize VSHP-member pharmacists with continual, but perhaps less apparent, contribution to the VSHP mission.  The criteria were developed with consideration of other state societies’ and ASHP’s criteria.  After approval by the Executive Committee and the Board, a group of FASHP-awarded VSHP members reviewed the proposed criteria, processes, and application. The Board approved the final materials at the Retreat in June, 2022.

Applications received prior to January 15, 2023, will be considered in the first round of the Fellow of VSHP candidates. Inaugural Fellows of VSHP will be recognized at the 2023 VSHP Spring Seminar. Applications will be reviewed annually on a similar timeline.

FVSHP Application Form

Guidance Document

***As presented at the VSHP Fall Seminar on 11/4/2022***

This year’s technician of the year is frequently involved in VSHP activities, he not only attends VSHP conferences for VSHP, but he attends local meetings and provides valuable input on the current issues facing pharmacy technicians not just in the state but nationally. He also advocates for the pharmacy profession as a whole.

He received his diploma of pharmacy technician studies at Virginia College in 2013, he worked in various independent and retail pharmacies prior to his career at VCU Health where he is the controlled substance technician. He is part of a team that is responsible for controlled substance management and maintain document integrity both inpatient and outpatient throughout the health system which we all know is a top priority in healthcare right now. His support during controlled substance shortages especially the benzodiazepine shortage has been astounding. Not only is his expertise in this area irreplaceable but his peers are consistently impressed by his teamwork, advocating for patients, and coordination of the complex controlled substances inventory.

2022s VSHP Pharmacy technician of the year is Lamar Johnson from VCU Health System.

(pictured above Rodney Stiltner (l) presenting the award to Lamar Johnson

Did you know that Virginia now requires 3 hours of live CE for license renewal

See: https://www.dhp.virginia.gov/pharmacy/guidelines/110-04.docx

To help you fulfill this requirement VSHP is offering three live webinars in December with each having one hour of live CE.  These webinars are FREE to VSHP members.  Non-members pay a nominal fee.

December 8 @ 12 noon: Dynamics in the Biosimilar Landscape: Recent and Upcoming Changes  To Register

December 13 @ 12 noon: Depression Updates  To register

December 15 @ 12 noon:  Thrombolytic Product Conversion Implications for Health System Pharmacy  To register

Please share with others on your team.

Hope you will join us for these programs.

***As presented at the VSHP Fall Seminar, November 4, 2022****

The VSHP New Practitioner Award is given to a VSHP member that has earned their first pharmacy degree in the last five years.  This member supports the organization through meeting attendance and participation, promotes the pharmacy profession within the commonwealth, and provides service to the community.  They must also demonstrate superior leadership, innovation, or clinical skill as compared to other new practitioners.

 

This year’s award winner is a graduate of Auburn University, where she also completed her PGY-1 Pharmacy Residency.  She came to Virginia to complete her PGY-2 in Ambulatory Care at INOVA Fairfax and is now a Clinical Pharmacist with the Inova Juniper Program.  She is board certified in Ambulatory Care and is accredited as an HIV Pharmacist by the American Academy of HIV Medicine.  She is member of the Education and Communications committees and was recently Region 2 President.  She is a frequent contributor to VSHP meetings (and is presenting today) and is published in the most recent AJHP.

Congratulations to VSHP New Practitioner of the Year, Caitlin Prather.

***As presented at the VSHP Fall Seminar, November 4, 2022***

Congratulations to Tyler Goins, PharmD, MSHA, BCPS, as recipient of the VSHP New Practitioner Award. Tyler is a 2018 graduate of the VCU School of Pharmacy, after which he completed a two-year HSPAL pharmacy residency at UVA Health in 2020. As a resident, Tyler was heavily involved in the renovation and construction of multiple sterile product areas, in addition to earning a Masters degree. Moving into a role at UVA Health overseeing sterile compounding and children’s hospital services, Tyler quickly has become an expert in multiple facets of pharmacy operations, and was featured nationally to share his expertise in non-sterile compounding during the COVID-19 pandemic. In his current role as Director of Clinical Operations he has continued to expand his pharmacy expertise, now including home health as an area of oversight. Tyler is also a committed member of VSHP, having served as a presenter and currently serving as the Region 1 President. Please join me in congratulating Tyler.

If you are attending the ASHP Midyear Meeting, we hope you will plan to attend the Virginia reception, Sunday 12/4.  See details below.

***As presented at the VSHP Awards Ceremony, November 4, 2022***

The 2022 VSHP Clinical Practice Achievement Award recipient is an infectious diseases pharmacist at Carilion Clinic who leads the inpatient antimicrobial stewardship program for the health system. She has impacted pharmacy practice and patient outcomes in 3 key areas. Over the past two years, she has led the creation of inpatient treatment guidelines for COVID-19 and assisted with vaccine education across the health system. She was also instrumental with implementing a novel approach to managing CDI utilizing a clinical decision support-designed order set for all treatment medications and expanded use of a novel agent, fidaxomicin, which reported superior outcomes to oral vancomycin. The AMS Team worked closely with case management and the Carilion Medication Assistance Program to design a process to obtain this high-cost treatment course for almost every patient who needed it. The recipient led grant-funded research to evaluate the impact of the clinical decision order set and found after implementation readmission rates dropped from 18.9% to 8.5% and clinical cure with no recurrence rates increased from 55.9% to 73.3%. Overall effects of the program from 5/2018-5/2022 included 438 patients treated with CDI, 44 readmissions prevented, 876 bed days saved and a cost savings of $976,280. This process pathway and evaluation was published in Infectious Diseases and Therapy this year.  In 2020, she also implemented a process for the antimicrobial stewardship pharmacists to review every patient with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia or Candidemia in the health system. Previous literature as well as internal research at Carilion Clinic identified this as an area where infectious diseases consult could have a large impact on patient care including mortality. Ultimately, she was able to implement automatic ID consults for patients with S. aureus bacteremia or Candidemia in July 2022.

Congratulations to the VSHP Clinical Practice Achievement Award winner for 2022, Lauren McDaniel!

VSHP President Kathy Koehl attended the ASHP Presidential Officers Retreat (POR) in Dallas, TX November 14-15.  The POR provides a venue for the interaction of ASHP elected leaders and state affiliate elected counterparts. The retreat is designed to produce outcomes beneficial to the mission of the organizations at a state and national level.