Mary Ghaffari

Mary’s Story

Dr. Mary Ghaffari attended South Dakota State University, where she earned her B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences (1999) as well as her Doctorate of Pharmacy degree (2001). In June 2002, she completed a critical care pharmacy specialty residency at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, MN. She became Board Certified in Pharmacotherapy in 2003. She serves on the ASHP Section of Pharmacy Practice Leaders (SPPL)-Section Advisory Group (SAG) on Multi-Hospital Pharmacy Executives workgroup. She is also a part of the 2019 ASHP Pharmacy Leadership Academy and the 2019 Fall Cohort of the Advisory Board Fellowship. In addition, she is an active member of the Vizient Pharmacy Practice Advancement Committee.

Facility

The University of Maryland Medical system is a comprehensive health care system that has 13 affiliate hospitals and over 150 ambulatory clinics throughout Maryland. The 13 affiliate hospitals are comprised of a large academic medical center and a variety of community based hospitals that provide primary and specialty care. Throughout the system, there are 2578 licensed beds, over 28,000 employees, as well as over 3500 affiliated physicians.

Recent Significant Projects

Dr. Ghaffari is the Director of Clinical Pharmacy Services for the University of Maryland Medical System and serves as the pharmacy co-chair for the UMMS Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P&T) Committee and oversees the clinical pharmacy services provided at all 12 UMMS hospitals. The main focus of the UMMS pharmacy enterprise is to optimize medication management, stabilize pharmacy costs and expand the clinical pharmacy care provided to the patients across the medical system. UMMS has made significant headway into standardizing to one single formulary, improve appropriate use on a variety of medications, as well as a cost savings of $2 million dollars through P&T initiatives in FY19.

Initial Involvement in ASHP

Dr. Ghaffari became a member of ASHP in 2015 and currently serve on the ASHP Section of Pharmacy Practice Leaders (SPPL)-Section Advisory Group (SAG) on Multi-Hospital Pharmacy Executives workgroup.

Why did you become involved in ASHP? 

I became involved in ASHP because I strongly believe in the mission of ASHP. ASHP allows me to collaborate, network and learn from others to enhance the care of the patients I serve.

Advice for Someone New to Specialty Area

I think the single most important piece of advice would be to develop your network and collaborate! We are all working on the same shared purpose to improve the care to the patients we serve. I believe that we can achieve greater things together, not only across our own organizations, but also across the country. By leveraging our organizational strengths and "lessons learned", we can enhance our collective efforts when we collaborate and learn from each other.

How would you explain the value of ASHP to a friend or colleague?

To me, ASHP is an invaluable organization for health system pharmacists. It is the "go to" organization for health system pharmacy practice standards, post-graduate education, advocacy for legislation, and networking. 

What is the value of ASHP for the profession?

ASHP, in my opinion, is the voice of pharmacists for health systems. It unifies our voice to provide a strong advocacy presence across healthcare legislation, as well as providing a forum for growth and learning for our profession. ASHP's residency programs allow for a high standard for post-graduate training and ensuring the future of pharmacy to practice at the top of our licenses.