Integrating Technology to Improve Medication-Use Patient Safety

William W. Churchill, M.S., B.S.Pharm. is the Executive Director of Pharmacy Services at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, where he is responsible for leadership of the pharmacy department and Anticoagulation Management Services. Mr. Churchill serves Brigham and Women’s as the Chairperson of the Drug Safety Committee, Vice Chairperson of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, and Co-Chairperson of the eMAR/Bar Code Scanning Project Team. He also serves the Partners Healthcare Network as the Co-Chairperson of the High Performance Medicine Improvement Team which focuses on the implementation of medication safety technology.

Mr. Churchill’s main areas of practice interest include improving the safety and efficiency of medication administration systems, design and implementation of medication safety related technology, robotics, and automation, and expanding and expanding the role of the clinical pharmacy specialist through the use of medication safety technology.

For his efforts in improving medication safety worldwide, Mr. Churchill was awarded the 2007 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ (ASHP) Distinguished Leadership Award. He was also selected as the 2008 Massachusetts Health-System Pharmacist of the Year by the Massachusetts Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

Mr. Churchill received his bachelor and master degrees from Northeastern University.  He is adjunct Clinical Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Northeastern University, Bouve College of Health Sciences. Mr. Churchill is the Chairperson of the University Hospital Consortium’s Pharmacy Financial Performance Committee and is also a member of the University Health System Consortium (UHC) Pharmacy Executive Committee.

Richard D. Paoletti, M.B.A., B.S.Pharm. is Vice President of Operations, Lancaster General Health in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  He is responsible for inpatient and outpatient operations of the Pharmacy, Laboratory and Radiology departments for a health care system that includes a 638-bed hospital with a level II trauma center and emergency department that experiences over 100,000 visits per year. Prior to this appointment, he served as Director of Pharmacy Services at Lancaster General where he was responsible for continuous quality improvement of pharmacy distribution, clinical activity and cost efficiency, including design and implementation of new inpatient and outpatient pharmacies utilizing barcode and robotic dispensing technologies.

Before joining Lancaster General Health in 2004, he served in various hospital pharmacy roles for over twelve years at Crozer-Keystone Health System, a five-hospital system south of Philadelphia.  He is a managing partner of Shrinksafe Systems, LLC, a company that he founded to create innovative pharmaceutical packaging to improve medication safety.  Mr. Paoletti and his team were recognized with two ASHP Best Practices in Health-System Pharmacy Awards in 2005 and 2009. He was recently honored as a recipient of University of the Sciences in Philadelphia Young Alumnus Award. 

Mr. Paoletti received his Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, and Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Delaware.

Christopher Fortier, Pharm.D. is Manager of Pharmacy Support Services at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and Clinical Assistant Professor, South Carolina College of Pharmacy – MUSC Campus in Charleston, South Carolina. As Manager of Pharmacy Support Services, he oversees procurement/contracting, controlled substances, repackaging, compounding, given-in-clinic, and investigational drug services. Dr. Fortier has lead the implementation of bar code medication administration, smart infusions pumps, and medication reconciliation across the organization. 

Dr. Fortier served on the ASHP New Practitioners Forum Executive Committee for two years and as the vice-chair in 2006-2007.  Additionally, with the New Practitioners Forum he chaired the Communications and Public Affairs Advisory Group (2005-2007) and was a member of the Leadership and Career Development Advisory Group (2003-2005, 2007-2008). As a member of the ASHP Practice Manager Section he served as the vice-chair and chair on the section’s Leadership Development Advisory Group (2005-2009). He is a representative on the ASHP Foundation’s Center for Health-System Pharmacy Leadership Student and New Practitioner Leadership Task Force (2007-present). Dr. Fortier is involved with the University Health System Consortium (UHC) Pharmacy Council’s Executive Committee, and he currently chairs the Medication-Use Informatics and Technology Committee.  He is a member of the South Carolina Society of Health-System Pharmacists. 

Dr. Fortier received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Connecticut and completed a PGY-1 Practice Residency and a PGY-2 Health-System Pharmacy Administration Residency at the Medical University of South Carolina Medical Center.