WRNMMC, Bethesda, MD  –   The U.S. Navy recently named My Lan Tran, supervisory pharmacist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), its 2022 Civilian Pharmacist of the Year.

“With a decades-long career in service of Navy pharmacy, My Lan Tran continues to prove herself an indispensable asset and unquestionable pillar within the Military Health System,” said Army Col. James Masterson, chief of the Department of Pharmacy at WRNMMC, in nominating Tran for the award.

For her part, Tran, originally from Hue, Vietnam, says she finds contributing to positive patient outcomes and working with multidisciplinary teams most rewarding about what she does as a pharmacist.

“I love chemistry, but I did not want to become a chemical engineer,” Tran said. “Pharmacy was the closest chemistry-related major,” she added.

“It’s an honor to work alongside so many great and wonderful people,” she continued. “I could not do or complete anything without the support of our pharmacy team.”

“Between the day-to-day tasks of delivering superior care to WRNMMC’s beneficiaries and directly supervising a sizeable Inpatient Pharmacy staff, Ms. Tran has also devoted herself to implementing innovative process improvement projects, the professional development of her team, and the mentorship of our next generation of tri-service military officers,” said Masterson.

Tran supervises more than 40 civilians and 10 active-duty service members. “In the maintenance of 24/7 inpatient pharmaceutical delivery to the world’s largest 244-bed joint military medical center, Ms. Tran oversees operations for sterile compounding of both hazardous and non-hazardous preparations, the narcotic vault, and automated dispensing cabinet maintenance and delivery,” Masterson furthered.

He added that Tran stood up and expanded a Discharge Pharmacy service at WRNMMC to provide discharge medication processing and counseling to patients leaving the facility. “This discharge service aided more than 5,000 beneficiaries [during fiscal year 2022]. The program maintains an astounding high-risk discharge patient counseling rate of over 90 percent.”

Tran is also credited with establishing and leading the Pharmacy Nursing Working Group, bringing together a multi-disciplinary team monthly to address issues impacting and improving patient care at WRNMMC. “Over the past fiscal year, the group discussed mitigation strategies for medication shortages, as well as ensuring the proper functioning and use of the facility’s automated dispensing cabinets,” Masterson said.

With the coming of MHS GENESIS to WRNMMC, Tran “has been deeply involved in the preparation and planning for this significant system change,” Masterson continued. “[She] has ensured she is educated on the new system, and that pharmacy is well represented in the transition. [She] completed a momentous line-by-line reconciliation of 4,659 inpatient pharmaceuticals between the old and new systems,” he added.

As chief of Inpatient Pharmacy, Tran supervises two pharmacy locations, delivering more than 78,000 intravenous and 9,000 oral medications monthly to inpatient wards at WRNMMC, according to Masterson. In addition, she provided seven pharmacists to inpatient wards, performing rounds on more than 1,000 patients and completed more than 400 pharmacokinetic interventions during FY 2022.

Tran also created a new Emergency Department clinical pharmacist role for discharge medication processing and counseling, admission medicine reconciliations, emergency code response, and assistance with processing and delivering medications for administration. She also provided the initial training to all incoming junior officers to the Pharmacy Department.

Navy Capt. Bridgette Faber, pharmacy consultant and Navy Pharmacy Specialty Leader for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED), stated, “My Lan Tran’s unfailing dedication to the mission of WRNMMC and Navy Pharmacy, her steadfast support to her civilian and military staff, and her desire to effect positive change at every turn reflect great credit upon her and the Navy Pharmacy community. [Her] exceptional professionalism, personal initiative and loyal devotion to duty make her most worthy of recognition for the 2022 Civilian Pharmacist of the Year.”

“It’s rewarding providing the clinical support for multidisciplinary teams to ensure the medications prescribed for patients contribute to the best outcome, resolving day-to-day medicine issues, and being a part of a team that provides the best possible care to every patient,” Tran said.