Interview Story - Overcame a Challenge

Upon hire for a Pharmacy Management position with a home infusion company that serviced patients throughout the continental United States, I learned that I would be managing an employee who recently held the position that I now hold. She had been demoted.

The position required pharmacist licensure in various states that we service. Usually, the burden of licensure is shared between pharmacists. This was the case in our situation.

A few weeks into the new role, carefully navigating a steep upward learning curve, I received a resignation from my newly demoted pharmacist who was responsible for licensure of one-third of the states we did business in. This put our pharmacy at risk of losing a very substantial share of the revenue from patients we serviced in those states. As the current manager, I could not allow that to happen.

I had 3 weeks to submit applications to be licensed in 9 states. I immediately began the application process for testing. It was quite complex. The application for each state included background checks, fingerprinting, a full-face passport photo, education history, pharmacy licensure information from states of current licensure, proof of intern hours prior to original licensing, previous employment history, and notarized character references. Each application required several days to complete.

Meanwhile, I was also taking on the responsibility of a new job in management, in a now short-staffed department.

This was only the first step. After these steps were completed, I would be issued authorization to sit for a test to obtain licensure. The real challenge would then begin. I had 2 months to complete these exams, for what would normally take 6-12 months under optimal circumstances.

I prioritized testing by patient service revenue. The states where we serviced the most patients would receive priority testing.

Systematically the test results began to come back… VA – passed, AL – passed, GA- passed… I successfully passed the test and completed the licensure process for all 9 states. Personally, it was a huge accomplishment and professionally it was of great benefit to my new company. Vital patient services were uninterrupted and tens of thousands of dollars in revenue were saved. In my first months at the company, I had proven their choice in a candidate had been a good investment.