Jordan Spillane, PharmD, has directed ambulatory pharmacy for Wauwatosa, Wis.-based Froedtert Hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin for more than five years. She oversees five retail pharmacies within Froedtert facilities and outpatient anticoagulation services across the health system.
Becker's Hospital Review recently asked her to discuss the skills pharmacy leaders need in today's healthcare climate, how to control pharmacy spend and what her proudest moment has been since joining Froedtert.
Editor's Note: Responses were edited for length and clarity
Question: When it comes to managing drug spend, what advice would you offer other pharmacy leaders?
Dr. Jordan Spillane: Use your resources and get creative. It is important to determine the most helpful, value-added resources when managing contracting, wholesaler relationships, shortage challenges and recalls. From a creativity standpoint, I think it is important to have nonpharmacy personnel involved in the drug spend process, as these individuals can have diverse backgrounds and experiences, which can provide a completely new perspective to the process.
Q: What skills are essential for pharmacy leaders in today's healthcare climate?
JS: Being agile, proactive and communicative. All industries, including healthcare, are undergoing enormous change at a very quick pace. This makes agility the primary skill that pharmacy leaders in healthcare must possess. By being proactive and communicative, pharmacy leaders in healthcare can be strategic and ensure that their staff understand goals and changes that are needed. If the leader is a strong communicator and proactive, this allows for success with changes and initiatives because everyone is aware of the "why" behind the initiative and how it will positively impact patient care.
Q: What has been one of your proudest moments since joining Froedtert?
JS: Two and half years ago, I was responsible for bringing four disparate teams of pharmacists, nurses and pharmacy technicians together under one team. This was a yearlong project that involved multidisciplinary team members, as well as frontline staff. The change directly impacted patients and required the clinicians to manage the change. It was a great learning experience, teaching me that accountability, immediate follow through and being thoughtful of future changes are essential for success with large changes that involve numerous individuals. Now, the team truly practices as one unified team, following one standardized process and reporting to one leader. It has been incredible to see the change that has occurred and has been sustained. It has also been exciting because other health systems have reached out to understand how our organization went through this process and what our learnings and barriers were so that they can undergo the same process.
Q: What market disruptors have your attention?
JS: Mergers and acquisitions in Wisconsin. There has been a lot of movement in Wisconsin, with regards to healthcare mergers and acquisitions in the past five years since I started working at Froedtert Health. This movement has created some reactiveness across the state, which has been interesting to work through. It has also caused some patients across the state to shift their preferred health system to Froedtert Health, so we have seen growth in certain areas and have had to be agile to shift tactics to ensure we are providing excellent patient care in those growing areas.
The evolution of consumer choice is another change that has my attention. With changes in technology and consumer expectations, it has been exciting to think creatively about how we can continue to provide excellent patient care in a delivery platform that patients want. I am always fascinated when I see consumer data from an age range, locale and socioeconomic perspective. For my clinic pharmacists, we continue to evolve our offerings to provide care in a patient-centric approach.
Finally, the increasing age population within Wisconsin. There are very few people moving into Wisconsin — although this is changing in the very southeastern portion of the state — and most people who live in Wisconsin are approaching 65 years of age. This will dramatically shift the payer mix for our health system. As a result, we are working to proactively prepare for that and thinking creatively about other revenue streams while still keeping patient care as the primary focus for our organization.