Becker’s asked pharmacy executives from hospitals and health systems across the U.S. to share how their workforce strategies are evolving.
The 12 executives featured in this article are all speaking at the Becker’s Healthcare Fall Chief Pharmacy Officer Summit, from Nov. 5-6, 2025 at the Hilton Chicago.
To learn more about this event, click here.
If you would like to join as a reviewer, 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: How is your health system’s workforce evolving?
Amy Dickson, PharmD. Regional Chief Pharmacy Officer of Mount Carmel Health System, Trinity Health (Columbus): In the pharmacy program at Mount Carmel Health System, we are closely watching the shift of patient volumes to our access points (hospital, outpatient, ambulatory, etc.) and are positioning our pharmacy workforce accordingly. We have recently realigned our hospital-focused pharmacy teams to support efficiency and effectiveness, while simultaneously investing in our growing outpatient pharmacy services and workforce. Our existing and incoming colleagues continue to seek growth opportunities and a great workplace culture; our pharmacy leaders are actively investing in these areas accordingly. In addition, we are developing our pharmacy leadership team for flexibility to address shifts in healthcare needs in our communities, managing change within our program, and understanding the political and payor impact on healthcare in the upcoming fiscal year.
Urshila Shah, PharmD. Executive Director of Pharmacy Services, Oncology Services, and Clinical Research at St. Joseph’s Health (Paterson, N.J.): At St. Joseph’s Health, our workforce is evolving to meet the demands of increasingly complex, coordinated care. We are expanding clinical roles for pharmacists, embedding them more deeply into multidisciplinary care teams — particularly in oncology, specialty pharmacy, and transitions of care. At the same time, we’re investing in cross-training, digital literacy, and leadership development to ensure our teams are not only clinically excellent, but also agile and aligned with systemwide goals.
John Armitstead. Vice President of Pharmacy Services at Lee Health (Fort Myers, Fla.): With the growing complexity of medications, specialties, and patient needs, there is an increasing emphasis on not only education and training, but demonstrated competency and continuous professional development. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are expected to stay current with emerging therapies and technologies actively engaging in lifelong learning and competency assessments to ensure safe, effective, and evidence-based care. This evolutionary shift underscores the importance of adaptability and ongoing education in maintaining high standards of professional practice. In brief, in regards to workforce evolution, what got you here, won’t keep you here.
Mohammad Kharbat. Vice President of Pharmacy Services, Wisconsin, at Ascension (Milwaukee, Wis.): Healthcare has been evolving and transforming for a very long time, and this “continuous evolution” or “constant change” will not stop anytime soon! One of the most notable evolutions was the shift from focusing on episodic patient care to the focus on providing holistic care to improve population health. This shift meant more services are now provided in ambulatory settings and at home necessitating new skills from our clinicians and caregivers! For Ascension Wisconsin, this also meant expanding our outpatient services such as ambulatory surgery centers, chronic disease management and pharmacy (to name a few), allowing our workforce to serve across the care continuum. As a market vice president of pharmacy, this evolution was evident in our pharmacy workforce. More pharmacy roles are now seen on the outpatient side to better support the growing outpatient service lines with greater emphasis on treating chronic conditions that our inpatient pharmacy staffs do not typically interact with. This evolution in the type of clinical skills needed for today’s healthcare will continue to shape the workforce of today and tomorrow.
Our workforce is also evolving in the way they communicate with one another and with patients. Thanks to advances in digital technologies, patients now can reach their care team and schedule video visits with a few keystrokes! This digital transformation will likely accelerate further and will help transform healthcare and its workforce faster than ever!
Nathan Vo. Senior Pharmacy Manager of Revenue Integrity at the University of Texas Medical Branch (Galveston): With the growing emphasis on outpatient services and financial performance, pharmacists are playing a critical role in revenue cycle operations. In high-cost areas such as outpatient infusion centers, they are working closely with billing and revenue integrity teams to ensure accurate medication documentation, coding, and charge capture. Leveraging clinical expertise and increasingly AI-driven analytics, pharmacists help optimize reimbursement, reduce revenue leakage, and ensure compliance with payer and regulatory requirements.
Kelley A. Curtis, PharmD. Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer of St. Luke’s Health System (Boise, Idaho): At St. Luke’s, our workforce is evolving to create greater efficiency, reduce unnecessary variation, and better support our providers. In pharmacy, we are advancing technician roles to allow pharmacists to operate at the top of their license — made possible by a progressive Idaho Board of Pharmacy. We’ve implemented initiatives like product verification technicians, who verify medications (including compounded intravenous products), and continue to hone our technician resource pool and ASHP accredited pharmacy technician apprentice programs. In ambulatory care we continue to expand our coverage of pharmacists as they are core members of the patient care team and support our providers with our medication management practice, while in acute care, we are evaluating opportunities to standardize aspects of pharmacist practices across sites to ensure high-quality, consistent care delivery. These efforts align with our broader system focus on improving access, clinical excellence, and operational sustainability.
Ryan Mezinger. Senior Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer of MetroHealth (Cleveland): The pharmacy workforce within MetroHealth system is evolving rapidly, driven by automation and AI, to improve workflows and efficiencies. These technologies are streamlining clerical tasks, freeing up valuable time for pharmacists and technicians to focus on direct patient care to address our mission of medication access and affordability. By enabling staff to work at the top of their license, they can concentrate on optimizing medication management, clinical decision-making, and personalized patient support.
Pharmacy services have also become an essential part of the healthcare team, ensuring seamless, patient-centric care that extends from the hospital bedside to the home. This comprehensive approach enhances treatment continuity, improves outcomes, and reinforces the pharmacy’s role in whole-person healthcare.
Robert P. Granko, PharmD. System Executive Director of Pharmacy at UNC Health (Chapel Hill, N.C.): I prefer the approach of “growing out of problems” rather than focusing solely on expense management. While expense management is important and is an essential part of our toolkit, growing, developing, and retaining top talent is, and always will be, most critical to our success. Enabling and empowering existing and new teammates will drive our ability to execute effectively for the long-term.
Our leaders and team members need to be empowered and upskilled to do more, especially given the headwinds facing healthcare. As we build in and towards an even more unpredictable and dynamic future, empowered employees focus on possibilities rather than just constraints.
Embracing AI to supplement and, where possible, alleviate workload is becoming increasingly popular. I often find myself asking, “Can AI help us here?” Although AI is not yet fully developed, it is important to deliberately allocate time to explore how and where AI can assist us. My team is particularly interested in how AI can reduce repetitive tasks, thereby creating room for more high-performance, stimulating work.
There are more spirited debates these days about the value of working from home versus returning to the office. Regardless of your or your organization’s stance on this hot topic, which may be at odds, it’s important to have team conversations around this topic. Ensuring that you support and sustain a healthy and belonging culture, building, and fostering a trusting workplace, and maximizing team collaborations are essential.
Michael Eagon. Senior Pharmacy Manager of Ambulatory Pharmacy at University of Texas Medical Branch (Galveston): At The University of Texas Medical Branch, our workforce is evolving to meet the demands of a more complex and patient-centered healthcare landscape. In pharmacy, we’ve expanded the integration of clinical pharmacists into ambulatory and specialty care settings, embedding them within care teams to directly support medication access, adherence, and specialty/chronic disease management.
We’re also investing in cross-training and upskilling our team. Our prior authorization specialists, financial counselors, and pharmacy technicians are being empowered with broader clinical and payer knowledge to better navigate insurance changes, such as the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan.
Additionally, we’re aligning our workforce with strategic growth areas by fostering collaboration between pharmacy, revenue cycle, and IT teams. This ensures we remain agile in responding to policy shifts and advancing models of care that prioritize outcomes and affordability for our patients.
Michael C. Dejos, PharmD. System Medication Safety Officer of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare (Memphis, Tenn.): Across the United States, the pharmacy workforce is evolving beyond traditional roles, with pharmacists now playing a larger part in primary care and medication management. Technology, especially artificial intelligence and automation, is revolutionizing how pharmacies operate, making services more efficient and accessible. The public perception of pharmacists has shifted, as they take on greater responsibilities in vaccinations, prescribing, and even administration of medications. Pharmacists are increasingly involved in informatics, quality improvement, and patient safety, using innovative approaches such as predictive analytics and personalized medicine to enhance care.
Dovena Lazaridis, PharmD. Director of Pharmacy, Ambulatory and Population Health at Memorial Healthcare System (Hollywood, Fla.): Our workforce is evolving to meet the growing complexity of healthcare. We are balancing clinical excellence with adaptability, data fluency, and a strong sense of purpose. We’re investing in multidisciplinary roles that integrate pharmacy, care coordination, and population health strategy, while leveraging digital tools to expand our reach and improve efficiency. Most importantly, we’re fostering a values-driven culture that supports innovation, collaboration, and shared accountability at every level. We’re building a model that brings pharmacy leadership to the frontlines of value-based care; anchored in data, aligned with equity, and designed to scale.
Mike Wascovich, PharmD. Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer of Ascension (St. Louis): The Ascension Rx team is incorporating new technologies and innovations to help streamline systems for our caregivers and simplify the patient referral process to our pharmacies. We are focused on ensuring our workforce evolves to meet the growing demands of our patients. That is why we are investing in new tools and professional development training for our pharmacists and technicians. These workforce advancements, combined with our offering of free shipping from our Home Delivery Pharmacy for those who qualify, will help us continue to deliver on our mission and ensure all of our patients have access to care, especially those having trouble affording their medicine.
