Interview Story - Solved a Problem

I could not believe this was happening…. As the pharmacy manager for a specialty home infusion company, we had spent the last two quarters preparing for accreditation for Joint Commission. We engaged in weekly calls with the corporate office and daily team projects with the local staff in preparation. Finally, the day had arrived, I was confident that I had crossed all of my T’s and dotted all of my I’s. Corporate executives would fly in from Texas to attend the audit and Joint Commission representatives would fly in from their perspective locations.

I arrived at work early, prepared the board room, and brought in breakfast. The Corporate team arrived first and shortly thereafter, the auditors for Joint Commission followed. We spent a few minutes with introductions and sipping coffee and eating pastries.

Then, the doorbell rang. We were a closed-door pharmacy, I assessed the room to make sure everyone who was expected to attend was in attendance. Everyone was accounted for. I rushed to the door expecting to shoo away an untimely solicitor.

To my surprise, when I opened the door, a middle-aged, stern-faced Asian woman, presented me with her badge to announce she was an inspector from the Maryland Board of Pharmacy. What were the chances that such a thing would happen? State Boards of Pharmacy visits are unannounced and not reschedulable.

I invited her in, explained the situation, and asked her to take a seat in the break room until I could clear my office to set up a place to conduct her inspection. She waited patiently. I called her into my office and began to retrieve the documentation she needed for review. She was very accommodating in that she allowed me to go back and forth between rooms to provide information to both parties.

She wanted to tour the pharmacy to ensure we were in compliance with state regulations. Our joint commission team had the same objectives but to a different set of regulations. Joint-Commission was a scheduled two-day event, so they agreed to change course and review documentation only on the first day.

I bounced back and forth between inspectors providing documentation and conducting tours of different areas of the pharmacy. Day 1 had come to a conclusion after approximately 6 hours and we had officially passed the MD Board of Pharmacy inspection without a single deficiency.

The following day, I would continue the audit with The Joint Commission to include a tour of our facility and in-home nursing visits. After that first day, I was confident it would be a walk in the park. I successfully completed the joint commission inspection with a few minor deficiencies that we were allowed to correct within 30 days through a corrective action report. Due to the “stand ready” approach that I take in my leadership roles, I successfully navigated two major audits in one-day, saving the company the time and expenses of a second audit.