Becker's 12th Annual Meeting Speaker Series: 3 Questions with Elie M. Bahou, PharmD, MBA, Senior Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer, Providence

Elie M. Bahou, PharmD, MBA, serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer at Providence. 

Elie will serve on the panel "Controlling Pharmacy Costs and How to Say No (and Sometimes Yes) to New Drugs" at Becker's Hospital Review 12th Annual Meeting. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place in Chicago from April 25-28, 2022. 

To learn more about the conference and Elie's sessions, click here.

Q: What are your top priorities for 2022?

Elie M. Bahou: Our first priority is overall pharmacy growth. We will continue to execute our initiatives, including utilization management, purchasing optimization, wholesaler contracting and building our group purchasing organization network.

The second priority is to work with a third-party vendor to help our specialty pharmacy increase script capture. Successful implementation would help Providence retain the number of prescriptions (and associated revenue) that can be filled internally.

We are also focused on optimizing our retail pharmacies to improve overall margins. The keys to this effort are developing and implementing action plans to increase prescription volume and streamline the use of labor at each location.

Q: What technologies and innovations are you most excited about in healthcare right now?

EB: I’m most excited about developing new and improved data analytics to enhance patient care (e.g., quality dashboard, focus on hypoglycemia). For example, a patient admitted after surgery may need an adjustment in their insulin. Using our electronic medical record and our data analytics platforms, we have been able to create protocols that proactively identify care changes that are needed and reduce rates of hypoglycemia across the system. Implementing kiosks at clinics, medical office buildings, and retail pharmacies for prescription pick up is also exciting. This will expand access to care and reduce waiting times at the retail pharmacies, which is a win-win for patients and caregivers.

Q: What will the lasting legacy of COVID-19 be on the healthcare system?

EB: While Covid has created a sense of comradery that I hope will persist, the unfortunate legacy is high rates of burnout and exhaustion among healthcare workers. Some are even choosing to leave health care altogether. Those that remain not only have to cope with exhaustion and PTSD, but also must fill in the shifts that the turnover has created. We have heard from many thought leaders that this churning will result in a post-pandemic behavioral health surge—similar to a pandemic surge only focused on behavioral health—that will require us to support our caregivers like never before. As a result, Providence is actively pursuing strategies to retain and recruit caregivers, as well as provide them with tools for coping. We have simplified access to virtual behavioral health visits for caregivers and their families and are encouraging caregivers to complete annual mental health check-ups, just as we do annual wellness physical exams.

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