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Dawn Moore, Community Health Network
During her time as Community Health Network’s vice president and chief pharmacy officer, Dawn Moore has dedicated herself to finding myriad ways to help patients quickly, safely and affordably obtain the medications they need.
“It’s all about access,” Moore said. “There are so many factors relating to the issue of access that are key in helping with patient care from a pharmacy standpoint.”
One major issue is the fact that many patients lack the money, the insurance coverage or the information necessary to lay hands on the drug or drugs they need. To alleviate this, Moore increased the ranks of Community’s medical assistance coordinators, who help patients not just locate medications but also find the financial means to obtain them. In 2023, Community provided $30 million worth of such services.
“We try to make sure that all of our patients, as much as possible, have an equal chance to get the right therapies,” Moore said. “So we’ve expanded our program to make sure we can navigate the systems to help with their needs.”
Another innovation, the Critical Drug Shortage Governance Committee, addresses the nationwide problem of chronic shortages of particular medications. It seems to be working because, while there are about 300 specific drug shortages nationwide, the Community network contends with only about half that many. Moore also founded a system-wide drug inventory management system to keep closer tabs on drug stocks at various facilities and redistribute them to where the need is greatest. Over the past four years, the effort has optimized Community’s inventory, reducing waste and over-ordering, saving more than $2 million.
“We share resources throughout the network, so that one hospital isn’t sitting on a surplus of something while another doesn’t have anything,” Moore said.
During her tenure, she’s also introduced a bar-code-scanning system for outpatient clinics that acts as a final safety check, to make sure patients receive the correct prescription. While hospitals routinely bar-code medication so they can be checked one last time before use, Moore helped expand the concept to Community’s far-flung network of satellite facilities.
But her concerns aren’t confined to optimizing pill distribution. Moore’s other projects range from attracting more youth to the pharmacy profession to ameliorating the problem of “pharmacy deserts” created by the recent closing of large numbers of chain drugstores.
“The pharmacy profession goes far beyond what you might see in any retail store,” she said. “We are in more areas than the public realizes, and we have a very broad role when it comes to patient care. We are the glue that helps medication therapies work the way they should work.”•
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