
Whereas attending pharmacy college on the College of Pittsburgh, Rebecca Taylor took courses in a constructing she already knew properly. As a toddler, she and her household sought backed dental care on the Pittsburgh College of Dentistry, the identical constructing that housed the college’s pharmacy college. Her mother and father, a mechanic and a stay-at-home mother, didn’t have dental protection.
“Later in life, my household realized that dental fillings didn’t really take 4 hours,” Taylor says, laughing. “However we’d have 4 completely different residents poking round in our mouth and getting expertise, so it took some time.”
Taylor’s upbringing taught her the worth of onerous work and by no means taking something as a right. Holidays and college procuring have been additional particular, and whereas her household didn’t dwell in luxurious, they at all times had sufficient.
In the present day, Taylor is the vp of the pharmacy service line on the College of Pittsburgh Medical Heart. She beforehand spent 13 years working by quite a few roles on the Cleveland Clinic. Whereas she has had necessary mentors in her profession, the VP traces a lot of her early inspiration to folks with no formal medical or pharmaceutical coaching in any respect.
“I grew up very near my Aunt Mary, who labored for an insurance coverage firm in downtown Pittsburgh,” Taylor remembers. “She introduced me to work and I bought to see her excel at her job. On the similar time, my mother at all times needed to be a nurse, and he or she spent an excessive amount of time caring for her circle of relatives members on the finish of their lives. She was a pure caretaker.
“My Aunt Suzy had labored her method as much as be the vp of the cellphone firm. After which there was my dad, who’s so meticulous and hardworking. He would construct mannequin vehicles at dwelling and take a lot time and care.” Taylor spent many Saturdays within the family-owned storage the place her dad labored along with her nice uncle and cousins. “These are the position fashions who impressed me to construct my very own profession.”
Taylor got here to UPMC in 2021 and was promoted to her present position only a yr and a half later. She applies her experience to overseeing a interval of unbelievable transformation, because the group strikes from ten particular person digital medical document methods to a single supplier in Epic by the Bridges program.
“If any of my members of the family wanted specialty remedy, [University of Pittsburgh’s] specialty pharmacy could be my first selection, arms down.”
Rebecca Taylor
The Bridges program will drive integration, standardization, and extra seamless look after UPMC sufferers and clinicians alike. The VP needs to implement a extra constant affected person, supplier, and pharmacy expertise throughout Pittsburgh and smaller communities, like Altoona and Somerset, Pennsylvania.
On the similar time, Taylor is concentrated on increasing UPMC’s pharmacy capabilities. A partnership with CarePathRX within the specialty pharmacy house additionally contains dwelling infusion and enteral providers.
“CarePathRx is the very best within the enterprise, with a state-of-the-art facility that permits us to supply specialty medication for our sufferers,” Taylor explains. “Extra broadly, we’re in a position to function as a middle of excellence. If any of my members of the family wanted specialty remedy, our specialty pharmacy could be my first selection, arms down.”
UPMC can also be addressing “pharmacy deserts”—the place retail places have closed down or by no means existed within the first place—with its Meds to Beds program. This system offers sufferers with the drugs they want earlier than discharge from the hospital.
“We have now seventeen places and are there to supply care 24/7, 365,” Taylor says. Pharmacists have entry to affected person EMRs and know what occurred throughout a affected person’s keep, which aids with continuity of care.
Taylor’s first job was in retail pharmacy, so she understands firsthand how necessary frontline employees, like pharmacists, are in getting sufferers what they want. “I’m not on the entrance strains now, so I wish to assist our pharmacists and our sufferers any method that I can,” she says.
A method to assist pharmacists and sufferers is to deal with workforce challenges. Amid labor shortages and declining pharmacy college enrollment, Taylor says her group is analyzing automation for low-skill, routine processes. That method, extremely certified pharmacy technicians can spend extra front-facing time with sufferers.
Outdoors of driving pharmacy innovation at UPMC, Taylor is at all times on the transfer, conserving busy with CrossFit, biking, or spending time along with her daughters and husband. Taylor is a homegrown success story: granddaughter of a steelworker, daughter of a mechanic and homemaker, and mom to 2 ladies who will certainly make their very own mark on the world.
Chartwell Pharmacy is among the nation’s most clinically superior suppliers of dwelling infusion for biologic drugs, specialty pharmacy, and enteral diet. Working in partnership with native physicians, hospitals and nursing companies, our scientific workers is devoted to creating certain every affected person experiences a constructive, profitable remedy end result within the consolation of their very own dwelling. Chartwell employs greater than 450 highly-skilled scientific and supportive professionals together with nurses, pharmacists, reimbursement consultants and customer support specialists who’re dedicated to offering the very best stage of service attainable.