Becker’s asked pharmacy executives from hospitals and health systems, along with academic medical centers and universities across the U.S. to share their focus areas for the remaining 6 months of the year.
The 13 executives featured in this article are all speaking at Becker’s Healthcare 3rd Annual Fall Chief Pharmacy Officer Summit, set for Nov. 4-6 at the Swissotel Chicago.
To learn more about this event, click here.
If you would like to join as a speaker or reviewer, please contact Mariah Muhammad at mmuhammad@beckershealthcare.com or agendateam@beckershealthcare.com.
As part of an ongoing series, Becker’s is talking to healthcare leaders who will speak at our conference. The following are answers from our speakers at the event.
Question: What is your No. 1 priority heading into the 2nd half of 2026?
Amy Gutierrez, PharmD. Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer of John Muir Health System (Walnut Creek, Calif.): Strategic planning at John Muir Health is anchored in two imperatives: sustainable growth and financial resilience. The evolving 340B regulatory landscape remains a critical central consideration — one that demands both vigilance and adaptability as we recalibrate strategy in response to ongoing and anticipated changes with potential operational and financial consequences. A parallel focus is expanding ambulatory care pharmacy services to broader patient populations, leveraging the clinical expertise of our pharmacists to drive measurable outcomes. Our track record of strong patient care and experience results in pharmacist-managed care gives us a proven foundation to build from — and scaling that model is among our highest priorities for the remainder of 2026.
Madeline Camejo. Vice President of Pharmacy Services and Chief Pharmacy Officer at Baptist Health South Florida (Coral Gables, Fla.): As we head into the second half of the year, our focus will be on technology. We are on an Epic journey, and close collaboration with our IT teams will be critical to a successful implementation. This includes reworking workflows to incorporate AI-driven clinical processes that improve pharmacy efficiency, as well as optimizing prior authorizations and claim denial reconciliation.
Ashley Galla, PharmD. Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer of Vivo Health, Northwell Health (New Hyde Park, N.Y.): Culture is always our top priority. We prioritize employee engagement and well-being because happier team members provide better patient care, leading to stronger outcomes. We invest in technology to improve the team member experience, streamline processes, and remove manual tasks so our people can focus on patient care. We intentionally build relationships across our organization by having a dedicated team that plans engagement events, brings people together beyond job titles, and celebrates successes, both professional and personal. These investments are strategic and prevent the loss of talented team members, thereby reducing recruitment costs, training expenses, and the loss of institutional knowledge. As our business grows, our people remain our competitive advantage; they keep us innovative and patient-centric, and exceptional talent attracts exceptional talent. Beyond retention, we’re deeply committed to supporting and developing our talent pool, growing them into the next generation of leaders equipped to tackle tomorrow’s challenges. Prioritizing culture isn’t just the right thing to do for our teams; it’s what enables us to deliver on our mission today and sustain it for the future.
Kelley Curtis, PharmD. Chief Pharmacy Officer and Vice President of Pharmacy and Lab COE at St. Luke’s Health System-Idaho (Boise): My No. 1 priority heading into the second half of 2026 is ensuring that pharmacy continues to evolve from a traditional support service into a strategic driver of patient access, quality, and financial sustainability across our health system.
At St. Luke’s, we are focused on expanding access to pharmacy services while building a more integrated and scalable model that supports our patients, providers, and communities. This includes advancing specialty pharmacy, home delivery, medication access programs, and clinical pharmacy services in ways that improve outcomes and reduce friction for both patients and care teams.
At the same time, healthcare organizations are facing significant financial pressures, workforce challenges, and increasing complexity around reimbursement and drug costs. As pharmacy leaders, we have a responsibility to demonstrate measurable value while continuing to innovate. My focus is ensuring we have the infrastructure, technology, and talent in place to meet those challenges while keeping the patient at the center of every decision.
I believe the organizations that will be most successful are those that can simultaneously improve the patient experience, strengthen clinical outcomes, and create sustainable economic value. That balance is what is driving our work every day.
John A. Armitstead. Vice President of Pharmacy Services at Lee Health (Fort Myers, Fla.): Ongoing alignment of Pharmacy Short Term Goals, Pharmacy Long Term Goals, Pharmacy Strategic Objectives with the Health System’s Strategic Objectives, Long Term Goals and Short Term Goals. In our VUCA world with Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity we are doing this through Vision, Understanding, Clarity and Agility. Bring it on!
Akeem O. Bale, PharmD. Vice President of Pharmacy Services and Program Director of PGY1/2 HSPAL Residency Program at UTMB Health (Galveston, Texas): My No. 1 priority heading into the second half of 2026 is expanding how pharmacy helps patients access care across the health system.
We’ve spent the last few years building real capability across specialty, infusion, retail, and ambulatory pharmacy, and this year the work is connecting those pieces into one experience instead of several. Whether a patient is picking up a routine prescription from a dispensing kiosk in one of our urgent care settings, starting a complex infusion, or getting a specialty medication, the goal is the same: access that’s simpler, faster, and more coordinated. That’s what we’re building toward with centralized fulfillment and the automation behind it.
What I find most compelling is that none of this is really about pharmacy. It’s about removing friction from the patient journey. Pharmacy just happens to sit where clinical care, technology, and operations meet, which is exactly why we’re positioned to do something about it. That’s where most of my energy is going as we look ahead.
John Feucht II. Vice President of Provider and Ambulatory Administration at Summa Health (Akron, Ohio): As we move through the remainder of 2026, our most significant pharmacy challenge centers on pharmaceutical expense control following the loss of our 340B program status. This change has materially impacted our drug acquisition cost structure and requires a swift, multi-pronged response to preserve financial sustainability. To address this, we are executing on three key strategic initiatives: transitioning to a new Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) to maximize contract pricing leverage across our formulary, negotiating a new wholesaler agreement to secure more competitive acquisition costs and distribution terms, and implementing an aggressive biosimilar utilization strategy to capture substantial savings opportunities as clinically appropriate alternatives become available. Together, these actions are designed to offset the financial impact of 340B loss and position our pharmacy program for long-term cost-effectiveness throughout the balance of the year.
Stacy Wise, PharmD. Director of Pharmacy at CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System (Texarkana, Texas): Our number one priority is how to expand the pharmacy and pharmacy services within the current footprint. We are planning on adding more decentralized pharmacists, increasing our presence to include not only ICU, but NICU, ED, and each medical floor. We have added a pharmacist and technicians to our Medication History Team and have expanded our oncology presence to include evenings and weekends. Within the pharmacy, we are evaluating our current technology with available alternatives to increase the efficiency of our workflow. The primary barrier for these changes will be the capital budget process and obtaining approval.
Robert Reynolds, PharmD. Director of Pharmacy at St. Clair Health (Pittsburgh): My top priority for the next year is our organization’s Epic migration and that it serves as a catalyst for pharmacy. We are treating the EHR transition as an opportunity to embed our clinical programs and drug revenue cycle directly in the digital backbone of the organization. My focus will be on making sure our clinical workflows, decision support and revenue integrity are configured to not just sustain but to synergize our growth in services and the patient care we deliver. Done right, this isn’t just a system change but a chance to build the foundation of how pharmacies will operate and create value for the organization for the next decade.
Fatimah Muhammad. Director of 340B Pharmaceutical Services, Specialty Pharmacy, Drug Replacement, and ADM Pharmaceutical Services at Saint Peter’s University Hospital (New Brunswick, N.J.): My No. 1 priority heading into the second half of 2026 is advancing patient access while optimizing the resources that make that access possible.
Healthcare organizations continue to face mounting pressure from rising drug costs, reimbursement challenges, and increasing demands to do more with limited resources. As leaders, we must ensure that patients can access the therapies they need while strengthening the financial sustainability required to support those services long term.
I believe the greatest opportunity lies in optimizing the intersection of pharmacy, reimbursement, technology, and data. When these areas are aligned, organizations can reduce barriers to care, improve medication access, capture appropriate reimbursement, and reinvest resources back into the patients and communities they serve.
The future of health care will belong to organizations that move beyond siloed thinking and create strategies that simultaneously improve access, outcomes, and financial performance. My focus remains on identifying and scaling those opportunities in a way that creates measurable value for both patients and the health systems that care for them.
Brian Latham. Executive Director of Pharmacy at Bon Secours Mercy Health (Cincinnati): In the second half of 2026, BSMH Pharmacy remains focused on advancing and evaluating technology to improve workflows, strengthen information sharing, and make better use of data to drive process improvement across the enterprise. This work includes implementing new software for retail pharmacy operations, rolling out changes to infusion intake processes, and refining inpatient pharmacy workflows to enhance efficiency and support more informed decision-making. At the same time, managing projected drug expenditure growth—largely driven by the continued rise of specialty medications—remains a key priority. Pharmacy teams are continuing their ongoing efforts to identify and implement strategies that help offset these increasing costs. In particular, acute-care pharmacy teams are advancing 2026 initiatives while also evaluating operational and clinical cost-saving opportunities for 2027 to help reduce overall drug spend across the system.
Kisha Gant, PharmD. Regional Director of Pharmacy, Northshore Region at Slidell Memorial Hospital (La.): My top priority heading into the second half of 2026 is cost containment while mitigating drug shortages. We are focused on reducing waste by evaluating expired items, non-formulary inventory, and unused formulary medications.
In parallel, we are revamping our inventory specialist training to ensure team members have the skills and knowledge needed to manage our systems and requests effectively. This includes establishing a baseline understanding of 340B, as well as core inventory management principles.
This role will also support education and ongoing monitoring of teams’ use and documentation of non-controlled substance inventory counts. Additionally, we are reviewing top medications by account type and assessing 340B accruals when appropriate.
Sally Sims, PharmD. System Director of Medication Safety at Lee Health (Fort Myers, Fla.): My number one priority heading into the second half of 2026 is ensuring our Lee Health Medication Safety and Quality Improvement Program is structured on a solid foundation through an established evidence-based framework. Our framework integrates national patient safety guidance from American Society of Health-System Pharmacists [ASHP], Institute for Safe Medication Practices [ISMP], Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [AHRQ], Det Norske Veritas [DNV], The Joint Commission [TJC], World Health Organization (WHO), and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement [IHI] while tailoring the structure to Lee Health System. It is intended to support a high-reliability, performance-driven quality and safety program that advances medication-use safety, clinical practice excellence, and continuous quality improvement across the continuum of care. I’m very excited to champion the Strategic Pillars and Key Elements of this framework that will drive our patient centered care to reduce Medication-Related Patient Harm and Optimize Patient Medication-Use Quality Outcomes across Lee Health through a coordinated system-based approach that promotes safe medication practices, data driven performance improvement, continuous learning, and multidisciplinary collaboration.
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