VA pharmacist always puts the needs of veterans fifirst
‘Adaptability’ becomes the watchword in a global pandemic.
Taneesha Watson is the calm at the center of the storm who adapted a busypharmacy to keep local vets safe and get themtheir critical medications, according to the colleagues who work with her daily at the Dayton Veteran Affffffffffffairs Medical Center.
Watson is the outpatient pharmacy supervisor there in the midst of a global pandemicwhen patient concerns are heightened, social distancing is required and a complex job gets even more complex.
The pharmacy simply cannot shut down or cut services due to
pandemic restrictions, said TonyWootton, assistant chief of pharmacy services at the Dayton VA Medical Center, someone who has known and supervised Watson for some eight years.
“She leads fromthe front, and her philosophy of ‘ fifind a way to say yes’ resonates with her staffffffffffff,” Wootton said of Watson.
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Watson has beenwith the Dayton VA for nine years, working with W al greens In fusion Services before that.
She has always felt drawn to pharmaceutical and health-care work, she said.
“I have always enjoyed working with patients ,” Watson told the Dayton Daily News. “It’s really my passion.”
Physician and nurses remainthefront-lineworkers in the battle against COVID19. Butpharmacists arethere, as well, with a key role in dispensing medication and, perhaps soon, helping to dispense vaccines for COVID.
“We’rehere tosupport the physicians and the nurses,” Watson said. “Providing patients with their medication is such a critical part of health care, and I really, really enjoy that.”
Putting veterans fifirst, day in and day out
“She always puts veterans fifirst and takes on their issues,” Wootton said.
Avisit to a local pharmacy confifirms howbusy pharmacists can be, and the Dayton VA is nod if ff ff ff ff ff fe rent. The outpatient pharmacy at the VA fifills 800 prescriptions, processes another 1,000 scripts for mail, and sees about 250 veterans daily in pharmacy booths where face-to-face interaction is possible, Wootton said.
“That’s about a typical day,” Watson said.
Disruption sin prescription service might have been expected when the pandemic started. Veterans who experienced symptoms were initially not allowed into the VA campus facility, and many were frightened away and simply did not come in, as Wootton described the situation in the pandemic’s early days.
The number of veterans coming into the pharmacy quickly dropped, and the VA pharmacy — like pharmacies everywhere — was forced to adapt.
Watson and her staff worked with the VA’s Pharmacy Contact Center to ensure veterans could get prescriptions via UPS nextday delivery.
Watson closed the pharmacy booths and moved operations to dispensing windows. In time, she coordinated with engineering staff ff and had plexiglass barriers installed into the booths.
According to her colleagues, she created a streamlined process for patients who were deemed COVID-positive or suspected positive, arranging it so that
prescriptions could be fifilled in advance and delivered to patients waiting in primary care, so ill veterans would not have to walk throughout a large facility.
And a curbside prescription delivery service has started.
Watson stressed that it was all a team effort, and she’s the fifirst to credit her colleagues.
Said Watson: “We implemented so many changes, I feel like I’m just a mere representation of the entire group.”
Wootton believes she is more.
“Where Taneesha really shines is her calm inflfluence on her staffffffffffff, in the face of many unknowns and frank fears,” he said. “The ability to improvise and make changes veryquicklyis inherent to a pharmacy leader. Taneesha does this each and every day.”