Specialty pharmacy tech transitions: 4 leadership lessons

As health systems expand specialty pharmacy services, technology transitions are becoming unavoidable — and increasingly complex. Pharmacy leaders who have already navigated these shifts say success hinges less on the software itself and more on how organizations manage people, workflows and expectations before and after go-live.

Across health systems, leaders pointed to several recurring lessons they would share with peers preparing for similar transitions.

Treat technology shifts as change management, not IT projects

Several pharmacy leaders said specialty pharmacy technology transitions should be approached as organizational change initiatives, not just system installs.

“I’ve led numerous technology implementations across diverse, multisite organizations, and one constant is that every site operates differently,” said Bickkie Solomon, PharmD, director of pharmacy and residency program director at Gainesville, Fla.-based HCA Florida North Florida Hospital. While standardization is often the goal, she said recognizing site-specific workflows — and engaging front-line staff early — is critical to reducing resistance and avoiding surprises.

That same mindset applies at the system level, said Michael Decoske, PharmD, assistant vice president of ambulatory services at Coral Gables, Fla.-based Baptist Health South Florida. He said a key lesson from past transitions was defining, refining and validating workflows before configuring the technology.

“Technology is a tool and should be moldable to support how care is optimally delivered, not dictate how it must be delivered,” he said.

Bring executives into the process early

Several leaders said technology transitions stall when pharmacy teams fail to align expectations with executive leadership early on.

“I would strongly encourage a discussion with non-users of the software on the executive team, specifically the CFO, COO and CIO,” said Neil Creasey, PharmD, system director of pharmacy services at Gallipolis, Ohio-based Holzer Health System. He said those conversations help ensure leaders understand what the system can — and cannot — deliver, particularly around data visibility and opportunity identification.

Too often, pharmacy teams focus demonstrations on end users alone, Dr. Creasey said, missing the chance to bring executive stakeholders into the strategy conversation early enough to drive momentum and organizational buy-in.

Baseline metrics can help bridge that gap. Melanie Joe, PharmD, chief pharmacy officer at Orange, Calif.-based UCI Health, said collecting organization-specific baseline data before implementation made it easier to show post-launch improvements to both team members and executives.

Map workflows and phase implementations

Leaders repeatedly warned against rushing implementations without fully understanding how new tools will interact with existing processes.

At Baptist Health South Florida, Dr. Decoske said giving data migration and reporting adequate attention upfront helped avoid downstream challenges and accelerated time to value.

At UCI Health, Dr. Joe said her team mapped current workflows before implementing AI to support prior authorizations, ensuring staff had a voice in how new steps fit into daily operations.

She also emphasized the value of a phased rollout. “A phased approach for implementation was deployed, allowing any unforeseen ‘bugs’ to be worked through in some of our smaller, less-impactful service lines,” she said.

Set clear expectations for patients and staff

Technology transitions can also fail when communication doesn’t extend beyond internal teams.

Eamonn Murphy, PharmD, associate director of specialty pharmacy at Syracuse, N.Y.-based Upstate Medical University, said patient-facing technology — particularly secure messaging platforms — requires deliberate expectation-setting.

Even when patients verbally opt in, Dr. Murphy said, they may ignore messages if they don’t recognize or trust the format. He recommended ongoing verbal communication to explain what messages will look like, how often they’ll arrive and how patients should respond.

Customization also matters. Dr. Murphy said pharmacy leaders should evaluate whether platforms support live staff messaging, refill questionnaires, multiple languages and translation features — and choose based on the needs of their patient population, not just vendor capabilities.

That patient-centered lens mirrors internal change-management priorities, Dr. Solomon said, noting that engaging staff early and often helps surface workflow concerns leadership may not see — and builds trust during periods of disruption.

Specialty pharmacy tech transitions: 4 leadership lessons

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