Celebrating American Pharmacists Month

Starting as young as six years old, she recalls assisting her non-English speaking mom and grandparents at the pharmacy: “I used to go with my mom to the pharmacy to communicate with the pharmacist that we were there to pick up my grandparents’ prescriptions. I used to always help my grandparents sort and organize their medications.”

Hamida’s lifelong dream became a reality when she began her pharmacy career and then accepted a job at Optum, where she currently manages filling, storing, packing and shipping patients’ specialty medications. Specialty medications are drugs that treat cancer, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, cystic fibrosis, HIV, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis and other chronic conditions. 

With her childhood experiences in mind, Hamida and her team ensure the pharmacy has the medications their patients need, when they need them.

“It’s very important that when we say a medication is coming to a patient, it is coming,” she says. “The medications we ship are potentially life-saving medications that the patients need to live. The process can be stressful, which I personally know because my mom is one of these patients. Two years ago, my mom was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and was given five years to live. I know these patients are anxious to receive their medication and we want to remove stress for them.”

Hamida credits her parents for being her inspiration to help others, work hard and follow her dreams.

“I’m so grateful for all the opportunities I’ve received in my life and throughout my career that brought me here,” she shares. “But the best part of my job is knowing, every single day, that I helped so many patients — that if it were not for this field, I would not be able to help so many people. Knowing that God put me here in this position to help all these patients makes me feel so good.”

“I’ve always had a special interest in cardiology and medicine, because if they had not taken my dad off his medication, chances are he never would have had that heart attack,” Melanie says. “It’s amazing we can prolong peoples’ lives by keeping them on their drug regimens.”

Through this personal experience, Melanie is using her compassion and understanding to help others with their own heart health. For the past year, she has been part of a congestive heart failure (CHF) pilot program that analyzes prescriptions CHF patients are taking and makes medication recommendations for potentially better health outcomes.

Melanie and her team take these recommendations directly to the patients’ cardiologist or primary care physician to determine the future course of each prescription regimen. So far, the pilot has received an outstanding 100% response rate, meaning providers end up adjusting prescriptions based on the pharmacists’ recommendations. These adjustments potentially prevent serious health complications and contribute to longer, healthier lives for patients. The success of the pilot program gives Melanie hope that it will expand in the future.

“Some of our patients are part of the sickest populations and we can do a lot of things to help them,” she says. “The CHF pilot is one way that we can do that, but we can grow this pilot program to other disease states and really help the patients that need it the most.”

Melanie’s passion for her work extends beyond the CHF pilot. She is sharing her expertise and providing training to the rest of the pharmacy staff on how to complete CHF prescription reviews. She also takes pride in leading an education subcommittee for Optum Health which furthers the knowledge base and develops skills for the pharmacy team as new guidelines are issued. The subcommittee also implemented “Good Catches” to highlight team members who have identified and corrected possible medication problems or harmful drug interactions for patients.

Between the CHF pilot and education subcommittee, she is focused on making the health care system work better for every one of her patients, including her dad: “If there’s anything we can do to help, then I want to do that. I don’t want anyone to fall through the cracks.”

“I started going to my supervisor and saying, ‘ou know what would be the greatest job in the world? If I could just talk to patients all day and teach pharmacy students. That would be amazing! I think I would be good at that,’” Heather says.

When an opportunity arose that would allow her to continue working with patients while also training and mentoring pharmacy students in an Optum pharmacy, Heather knew she had found her calling.

“If I do my job extremely well when taking care of patients, they start to trust the Optum name and know that we’ll be there for them,” she explains. “I’m training my students on how to take excellent care of patients and teaching them how rewarding it can be. If I do my job well with teaching, then I’m taking care of even more patients than just me alone calling patients.”

Heather takes pride in knowing her student mentoring will have a positive, long-term impact on people’s lives. To date, she has shared her expertise and passion with more than 30 pharmacy students training in a real-world setting.

“I try to instill my love of pharmacy in my students and teach them that it’s the connection with our patients that makes a difference,” Heather says. “In one instance, I was following up via phone with a multiple sclerosis patient who was a painter. When I called, he was working outside and getting dehydrated from throwing up multiple times. He thought I would tell him to get a sports drink and was surprised when I told him to go to the hospital immediately. I was so concerned after talking with him that I called the next day to check in. He said, ‘thank you,’ that the emergency physician agreed he needed to be there, and he was able to get his fluids and electrolytes replenished. On top of that, his boss now has him working in the shade so that it doesn’t happen again.”

In addition to her love of pharmacy, Heather tries to instill two other pieces of advice in her students. She encourages them to be fully present wherever they are – at home or at work. And to “know your values and what is important to you, and operate with those in mind.” One of Heather’s core values, make a difference, clearly shines through in her daily interactions with her patients and students.

Many medications require routine monitoring and Mohammed helps educate members on the importance of getting the necessary testing to facilitate better health outcomes.

“We work together — the pharmacist, member and provider — to determine what, if any, changes are necessary with the member’s medications,” Mohammed shares. “The resulting shared-decision process gives members a voice in their care.”

The consultations Mohammed conducts also identify barriers to care, including their access to transportation. If patients are unable to access their medications, they are less likely to maintain their treatment regimen. This is where Mohammed’s team will intervene and help patients find solutions, such as Optum Home Delivery for unreliable transportation, to those barriers. These solutions lead to better health outcomes by focusing on quality, advocacy and access — ultimately lowering the cost curve through health improvements.

“The most amazing part of my job is that I’m directly helping people one-on-one,” he says. “While much different than a retail or hospital setting, I have found pharmacy consulting so rewarding. There is nothing more gratifying than knowing you helped a member take the right steps toward improving their health. That is what motivates me each day.”

Mohammed often remembers the days of his childhood and the positive impact clinicians had on him and his grandparents: “At Optum, we are definitely going in the right direction with how we care for our members. We are really making a positive difference.”