Health systems are seeing measurable returns from pharmacy-led initiatives, including a more than 2% reduction in A1C levels and hundreds of incident fixes and system enhancements, according to executives across the U.S.
Pharmacy leaders told Becker’s these gains are being driven by expanded pharmacist roles in areas such as antimicrobial stewardship, chronic disease management and specialty pharmacy access. These efforts are improving infection outcomes, standardizing care and accelerating adoption of evidence-based protocols.
At the same time, pharmacy is delivering operational scale. One system closed more than 2,400 incident tickets and implemented more than 100 enhancements in a year, while others reported reduced medication waste and stronger supply chain performance.
Becker’s asked health system pharmacy executives, “Which pharmacy-led project or initiative in your organization has produced the most meaningful clinical or quality impact? What results have you seen?”
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Jerry Altshuler, PharmD. Network Director of Drug Use Management and Clinical Pharmacy at Hackensack Meridian Health (Edison, N.J.): Our most impactful initiative has been the integration of network [pharmacy and therapeutics] standardization with dedicated pharmacy specialty committees to drive clinical strategy.
This dual approach has allowed us to harmonize our formulary and clinical review processes at the highest level while ensuring specialty-specific expertise guides our frontline initiatives. As a result, we’ve seen significantly increased consistency in clinical outcomes and a more streamlined implementation of evidence-based protocols across the entire health system.
Chad Alvarez, PharmD. System Pharmacy Director of Carilion Clinic (Roanoke, Va.): At Carilion Clinic, several pharmacy-led initiatives continue to advance our mission and meaningfully improve patient outcomes. Antimicrobial stewardship has had one of the most significant clinical and quality impacts across the health system.
By optimizing antibiotic selection, dosing and duration, pharmacists play a critical role in reducing antimicrobial resistance and improving outcomes in serious infections.
In the outpatient setting, the expansion of pharmacist-led services has led to measurable improvements in chronic disease management, including reductions in A1C levels. Additionally, our meds-to-beds program at our largest facility has enhanced prescription capture and improved care transitions, particularly for emergency department patients, resulting in reduction of medication access barriers. In addition, the pharmacy is well positioned in clinical variation work, reducing cost of care.
We experienced a greater than 2% decrease in A1C.
Angela Boord, PharmD. System Executive Director of Pharmacy for UnityPoint Health (West Des Moines, Iowa): At UnityPoint Health, we are redefining how health systems approach pharmacy enhancements by integrating clinical, operational and informatics expertise into a single workflow. Since implementing this model in early 2025, we have streamlined stakeholder engagement, completing more enhancements with speed and consistency.
Central to this approach is the use of pharmacist informatics builders, who serve as a critical bridge between frontline clinicians and technical teams. This model has strengthened troubleshooting, elevated solution design and optimized testing — ultimately improving the enhancement experience while delivering safer, higher-quality outcomes for patients and providers.
We reduced the number of stakeholders in weekly Willow User Group meetings by 40 people and engaged a group of five pharmacist informatics resources, one system informaticist, three Willow pharmacists and two pharmacist builders along with a mix of eight total operational and clinical leaders to create a nimble group to problem-solve the tickets and enhancements. In 2025, they closed over 2,400 incident tickets and over 100 enhancements which was a significant positive change!
Kelley Curtis, PharmD. Chief Pharmacy Officer and Vice President of Pharmacy and Lab for St. Luke’s Health System (Boise, Idaho): One of the most impactful new initiatives we’ve led is PharmaFit, our pharmacy-led metabolic health and weight management program supported by clinical dietitians and care management.
Using a “front door” approach, we’ve streamlined access to affordable GLP-1 therapies while surrounding patients with coordinated clinical support, improving time to therapy, adherence and overall cardiometabolic outcomes. The model has also reduced provider burden and created a more seamless, patient-centered experience across primary and specialty care.
Robert Fink, PharmD. System Vice President of Pharmacy Services at UofL Health (Louisville, Ky.): We have had to take a bit of a different approach due to constraints. We are expanding our outpatient ambulatory and specialty pharmacy including clinic expansion. To accomplish this, we have had to suspend our medication reconciliation and transition of care services to move staff to ambulatory services.
Additionally, we have moved our internal medicine service line to a hybrid model supporting inpatient services while staffing clinics. We have also added five additional specialty pharmacy pharmacist positions to support this growth while we also plan to open our 10th (fourth oncology) outpatient infusion center later this summer. We just recently opened our fifth retail pharmacy location that further supports our in-house pharmacy benefit manager and Meds2beds services.
Derek Imars, PharmD. Executive Director of Pharmacy Supply Chain for Indiana University Health (Indianapolis): We are currently implementing a standardized, four-step [automated dispensing cabinet] optimization process supported by a specialized pharmacy team and advanced technology integration to create a more resilient, sustainable supply chain.
By stabilizing the “demand signal” from the last mile of drug delivery back to our centralized service center, we are scaling a methodology that has historically proven to save hundreds of thousands in avoidable refills and waste. This pharmacy-led initiative is a critical step in improving clinical quality and pharmacy job satisfaction while directly enhancing nursing resiliency and patient safety through consistent medication availability.
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