Megan Doyle Named Service Hero at the Infirmary

Megan Doyle was named a Service Hero at the Infirmary for displaying the value of EXCELLENCE.

As the cardiovascular clinical pharmacist specialist, Megan’s primary patient populations are advanced heart failure (LVAD candidates and implants) and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients. The job of the pharmacist for PAH patients is very stressful. Initiating and maintaining these patients on prostacyclin therapy and other therapies with REMs programs is very complicated and time consuming, and is not something that 99% of pharmacists have confidence doing.

It takes special training and a lot of experience to safely dose and adjust these medications. On Nov. 25, 2019, we had two patients admitted for initiation of prostacyclin therapy. Meagan was consulted to maximize therapy for both patients prior to discharge.

Planning to go home to Nebraska for Thanksgiving, Meagan had both patients stable and ready to go home with assistance from their specialty pharmacy. Instructions were given to on-site pharmacists to notify her with any issues that arose with the patients. The next morning one of the patients had a change in status. A Rapid Response was called, and the patient was transferred to the CCU.

Meagan immediately canceled her plans to go home for Thanksgiving in order to be at the bedside with the patient and ensure that their prostacyclin therapy was able to be aggressively titrated to a dose that was tolerated and sufficient for the patient. Meagan missed Thanksgiving with her family to ensure that our patients were given the best care possible.

Meagan knew that other pharmacists in the organization would not have the available skills to comfortably titrate this patient, and she put her own plans on hold to ensure our patients have the excellent care they deserve.

“Meagan goes above and beyond every day for our patients without overtime or call pay. Our core values of Compassion and Excellence are highly instilled in Meagan and we are so proud to have her wisdom and knowledge in our department.“