Hello future health system pharmacy administrators! I am happy to introduce you to the Mission Hospital Pharmacy Administrative Residency program. I am the residency director and look forward to being a guide for you as you progress along your pharmacy administrative journey. My interest in leading and guiding you is based on my own experience in hospital pharmacy and what I know that we, as hospital pharmacists, can provide to our patients. I have over 30 years of experience in hospital pharmacy and 24 years of experience in management roles. I encourage pharmacists to explore a management/administration career path because we need dedicated managers/administrators to assure that we never stop improving the medication process and that we take care of patients with the safest and most cost-effective, efficient processes. As pharmacists, we have a good business case for the care that we provide. We need good, passionate ambassadors to present the business case to our hospital boards, medical staff, and senior administrators.
My niche and passion in hospital pharmacy has been in medication safety. I graduated from the University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences Pharmacy School, and later obtained my Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Memphis. I have experience at 3 hospital pharmacies over my approximately 30 years of hospital pharmacy practice. During my tenure at Mission Hospital, I am proud to make known that we were the first to use failure mode effects analysis to analyze our medication process; we held a national medication safety program in 1996, right after the Institute for Health Care Improvement started publishing their Harvard School of Public Health medication safety articles. We now have a cutting edge, high tech distribution center that assures valid bar codes, automates our inventory and IV compounding. As much as possible, we are taking the human out of the process, reducing errors and allowing re-deployment of our pharmacists to the patient’s bedside.
I look forward to meeting you, and introducing you to our high performing hospital pharmacy team, including pharmacy information technology staff, infectious disease, anti-coagulation, critical care, emergency services, oncology, and drug information specialists, many other clinical specialists and several North Carolina clinical pharmacy practitioners, who prescribe, under protocol and in collaboration with several Mission Hospital physicians.
~Ellen Williams, Director of Pharmacy
Tracy Wilson, RPh, Senior Pharmacy Operations Manager
Tracy Wilson, RPh, is the Senior Pharmacy Operations Manager at Mission Hospital. She graduated from the University Of North Carolina School of Pharmacy in 1992. Tracy has been employed by Mission Hospital since that time and has served in many different roles. After primarily focusing as a clinical pharmacist in pediatrics and cardiology, she specialized in Surgical Services for 10 years. In 2010, after 4 years as Operations Manager for the St. Joseph campus, Tracy was promoted to Senior Operations Manager, over all operations of the three campuses. During her tenure as Operations Manager, Tracy successfully planned and supervised construction of the new 10,000 square foot, state of the art pharmacy distribution center at the Ridgefield Campus. Her focus is providing cost effective, highest quality pharmacy services, working toward the Big(ger) Aim of Mission Hospital. Outside of work, Tracy enjoys water sports, traveling, and spending time with her 2 boys.
Jenny Sippel-Tompkins, RPh, Operations Manager Memorial Campus
Jenny is the Pharmacy Operations Manager at the Mission Hospital Memorial campus. She received her Bachelor's of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Florida. After working for 12 years in retail pharmacy management, she transitioned to hospital pharmacy at Florida Hospital in Orlando, Florida. While at Florida Hospital, she was invited to participate in a year-long intensive Leadership training program. In 2008, she moved to the Asheville area and joined the staff at Mission Hospital. As Pharmacy Operations Manager, Jenny's focus is human resources, education and training, and internal and external customer service improvement.
Elizabeth Lucas, PharmD, Operations Manager St. Joseph's Campus
Elizabeth graduated from the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy in 2002. She moved to Asheville and accepted a position at Mission Hospitals as an Internal Medicine Pharmacist. Elizabeth has also had experience working in Critical Care, Pediatric/Neonatal intensive care units, Emergency Department, and Metabolic Support. She has been an active preceptor for UNC School of Pharmacy. Elizabeth is currently the SJH campus pharmacy operations manager, which includes managing operations at the Cancer Center Infusion Pharmacy and Asheville Surgical Center Pharmacy.
Julie Applegate, PharmD, BPCS, Clinical Manager
Julie graduated from University of North Carolina School of Pharmacy in 2002. She then completed a PGY1 Residency at Mission Hospitals. Since her residency she has worked as a Drug Information Pharmacist, Assistant Faculty with the Wingate University School of Pharmacy, and a Clinical Pharmacist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Asheville, NC. She is currently one of the Clinical Managers for the Mission Pharmacy Department. Outside of work she enjoys learning new things, traveling, playing outside, music, reading, and spending time with family and friends.
Brenda Asplund, PharmD, Medication Safety Pharmacist
Brenda Asplund, PharmD is the Medication Safety Pharmacist for Mission Hospitals. Brenda received a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from Ohio Northern University and a PharmD from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. After working in retail pharmacy for two years, she discovered a love for hospital pharmacy and transitioned to a general hospital practitioner at Cabell-Huntington Hospital for two years, prior to relocating to Asheville. Since being employed at Mission since 2001, Brenda has practiced in Adult Medicine and Critical Care before focusing on Pediatrics and Neonatal ICU. In 2005 Brenda accepted a leadership role as the Operations Manager of the St. Joseph Campus. In this role, as in Pediatrics, she realized the need for a focus on Medication Safety and worked with Ellen Williams, Pharmacy Director, to create a role within the department to improve the safe use of medications. In this role, Brenda concentrates on TJC Medication Management Standards, system quality improvement initiatives, and review of medication error reports. Brenda is trained in LEAN principles, The Just Culture, and Mayo clinic TEAMS methodology using DMAIC principles.
