Kelly Besco

Kelly's Story

Kelly Besco, Pharm.D., FISMP, CPPS, earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Ohio Northern University. She completed an ASHP-accredited residency in Pharmacy Practice at Riverside Methodist Hospital and ISMP's Safe Medication Management Fellowship.   Dr. Besco serves on ISMP's Clinical Advisory Board, the Medication Safety Officers Society (MSOS) Advisory Board and is a Member of FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee.

Overview of Facility/Health System

Dr. Besco is the Medication Safety Officer for OhioHealth Pharmacy Services where she leads a team of Medication Safety and Antimicrobial Stewardship Specialists to evaluate the medication management system for safety, operational and clinical gaps to create performance improvement programs for OhioHealth’s 11 hospitals, home health services and affiliated physician practices. 

Significant Projects

“Over the past year, we have completed an expansion of our Medication Safety and Antimicrobial Stewardship teams. We developed strategic plans for both programs and have built out a network structure to support inpatient and ambulatory sites. While our specialists have site level responsibilities, we collaborate on improvements and lateralize strategies across our health-system. Through this collaboration, we have been able to accelerate our improvement efforts and better serve our patients.”

Initial Involvement in ASHP

“ASHP has consistently been at the forefront of efforts to improve medication use and enhance patient safety. It is a commitment I share and why I became and remain a member.”

Advice for Someone New to Your Specialty Area

“Leading change and motivating others to adopt best practices can be challenging. I encourage others who are starting in a new role where they will be tasked to influence others to focus on relationship building and emotional intelligence. Clinicians tend to make decisions to adopt a practice based on how it will personally impact them. If you are able to better appreciate an individual's needs and existing beliefs through relationship building, then you can better tailor your approach in motivating them.”

Value of ASHP

“ASHP helps to advance and support the professional practice of pharmacy. I learn something new each day from the variety of ASHP resources, like the daily briefings, that helps me in my practice.”

“With the healthcare transforming from a volume based structure to a value based model, it's more important than ever that the value Pharmacists provide to the public is promoted and ASHP is our profession's voice.”