Sarah Bledsoe

Sarah’s Story

Sarah Bledsoe, Pharm.D., CPHIMS, is Assistant Director of Pharmacy at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. She received her Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Sarah has been active for several years in ASHP, most recently serving as a member of the Section of Pharmacy Informatics and Technology Advisory Group on Pharmacy Operations and Automation. She has facilitated informatics networking sessions, presented informatics clinical pearls, developed resources for smart pump interoperability and is currently drafting guidance for the use of IV workflow and automation.

Facility/Health System

Children's Mercy is a 366 bed, non-for-profit, pediatric teaching hospital with expanding ambulatory services throughout the central Midwest. Each year, Children's Mercy supports children and their families through 384,000 ambulatory clinic visits, 200,000 emergency room visits and 16,000 surgeries.

Significant Projects

Sarah has always had an interest in informatics and has previously practiced in a variety of areas including pediatrics, informatics and medication safety. Throughout her career, Sarah has facilitated numerous projects related to healthcare information technology and automation including electronic healthcare record optimization, implementation of automated dispensing cabinet technology and an automated pharmacy workflow management system. Most recently, Sarah has been focused on implementing an electronic temperature monitoring system throughout the organization.

Initial Involvement in ASHP

“ASHP gave me a place to network with pharmacists and hospitals all over the country. It is exciting to see what others are doing to improve healthcare and to share my experiences to help others improve.”

Advice

“With the quick paced world of informatics, communication is key. Talk with other hospitals, pharmacists and vendors about the problems you are having. Through networking, you will discover others that have similar needs or those that have been able to develop solutions. I have always found the informatics world to be very welcoming to new ideas, visions and collaboration. It is a great place for pharmacists with any skill level to get involved. Even if you are not a programmer, you can greatly impact how our clinical systems operate by sharing your ideas for what information you need and how you want to receive it to better care for your patients.”

“If you are a student, consider an informatics rotation or even a residency. Informatics touches every aspect of pharmacy practice and additional training can open doors to a variety of exciting career opportunities.”

Value of ASHP

“ASHP develops the guidelines and resources which drive how we use automation and technology in our daily practice. They advocate for us on a national level and are paving the way for the future of pharmacy.”