Rachel Durham, Directory of Pharmacy
Advisory Board
Health Care Logistics® Advisory Board member Rachel Durham is Director of Pharmacy at the Fulton County Health Center in Wauseon, Ohio. She earned her degree from the University of Toledo and has spent the last five years sharing her talent with the team at HCL.
Having a management role at a small hospital means Durham oversees many projects — often at once.
“From a medication safety officer to antibiotic stewardship to medication and supply procurement, small hospital pharmacists do it all,” she said.
Durham began her career as a pharmacy tech, a position she held for five years. She moved on to become a pharmacist and worked for six years as staff pharmacist before taking on the job as director. It’s a journey, she said, that gives her a unique perspective, especially in her advisory role.
“Small hospital pharmacists are able to use their knowledge and expertise in many different areas,” she said. “In my opinion, it is the best way to practice pharmacy because you are exposed to a variety of patient care settings. This makes small hospital pharmacists valuable as advisory board members — we can share our experience from the dynamic small hospital and rural health perspective.”
Durham said she is fascinated by science, citing it as the spark that ignited her passion.
“When you mix chemistry with biology and immunology, it becomes even more fascinating,” she said. “My mom and sister are dietitians (pharmacy and dietetics are oddly very similar) so choosing pharmacy was not exactly copying what my mom and sister did, but it is close!”
Through her work, Durham is able to advance patient safety throughout her health system. It’s an opportunity she doesn’t take lightly.
“I work tirelessly to prevent errors, constantly thinking of all of the what-ifs,” she said. “If I prevent even one safety event in my lifetime, I've done my job.”
Time, however, is a constant struggle.
“The most challenging part of my profession is finding enough time in the day to do all the things I want to get done at my job,” she said. “My wheels are constantly spinning; I'm constantly reading and dreaming of better ways to do things.”
She takes a tremendous amount of pride in keeping her small group of pharmacy technicians functioning as a team.
“My greatest joy is seeing them work together to get the job done, imagine and create better ways complete their work and be each other's support system,” she said. “I also take pride in my department's safety culture. Patient safety is always at the front of our minds and safety event reporting is one of our top priorities.”
Away from the pharmacy, Durham enjoys spending time with her husband and four children, ages 19, 14, 11 and 8. She also enjoys running.
“If I don't run, I get cranky,” she joked, “so beware.”