Ganesh Chandran

Ganesh Chandran, PharmD, MBA, is a pharmacy executive on Vizient’s Pharmacy Advisory Solutions team. Chandran earned his Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Maryland and completed his Pharmacy Practice Residency at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, WA. He completed his Master of Business Administration with a specialization in Healthcare Management at the University of Baltimore Merrick School of Business.

Current Responsibilities:
Chandran works directly with a variety of health-system pharmacy leaders to empower them with data-driven insights, cost-saving strategies and tools to streamline pharmacy operations and navigate regulatory compliance. 

Facility:
Vanderbilt is a teaching hospital, but it is also a health system. We have so many moving pieces. Technically, the section I work at is an outpatient ambulatory section.

Recent Significant Projects:
Some meaningful projects I have had the pleasure of recently working on include developing a new two-year training internship program for pharmacy students to gain project management experience in pharmacy operations and partner on medication safety initiatives, expanding 24/7 pharmacy services for Advanced Care at Home, and designing a new perioperative pharmacy cleanroom suite.

Advice for Someone New to a Specialty Area:
My advice to new pharmacy leaders in operations is to invest time early on in better understanding performance metrics for your areas and how you can capture them in ways that are impactful to your frontline staff as well as to your executive leaders. Aligning the day-to-day pharmacy work with organizational goals and initiatives can help pharmacy leaders continue to advocate for necessary resources in their areas and recognize and retain exceptional teammates.

Involvement with ASHP:
I am currently serving as the vice chair of the Section of Pharmacy Practice Leaders Section Advisory Group on Frontline Leaders.

Reason for ASHP Involvement:
I became involved with ASHP to stay connected with colleagues across different practice settings and to keep abreast on the latest developments in pharmacy practice. Having participated in a few different Section Advisory Groups over the years, I enjoy getting to work on various projects with pharmacy leaders to build needed resources for our profession.

Value of ASHP for Peers or Colleagues:
ASHP offers a diverse array of resources for pharmacists and technicians at any stage of one's career. As pharmacy practice models and settings expand and evolve, the scope of the organization and its features grow accordingly. The different advisory groups welcome members to get involved in shared interest areas. ASHP Connect is also a fantastic forum to network with members and solve problems together.

Value of ASHP for the Profession:
ASHP stays connected with pharmacists and technicians to understand the ever-evolving needs of the pharmacy workforce and our patients and patient care settings. The organization works to ensure our voices are heard at a national level and conveys the impact of new and current legislature on pharmacy practice to members of Congress. Through its professional certificates, ASHP allows members to invest in their career growth and build or expand their knowledge base in a wide array of current focus areas.