By Paul Price, PharmD, BCPP

After graduating with a PharmD degree from South Dakota State University, College of Pharmacy in 1999, Anne Morstad began her career at Avera McKennan Hospital and University Health Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She became involved in Psychiatry when Paul Price, who had been the hospital’s psychiatric pharmacist, moved to Nebraska. She became the lead pharmacist when Avera McKennan built a free standing Behavioral Health Center, and after becoming a board certified psychiatric pharmacist (BCPP), she was promoted to a Clinical Specialist in Psychiatry.

What makes going to work a joy for Anne is, first of all, working with a fantastic team of pharmacists which includes Eric Kutscher another CPNP member. Anne states that she has the good fortune to have had Paul Price and Eric Kutscher as mentors throughout her years of her practice. Secondly, her team enjoys a wonderful working relationship with the psychiatrists, the administrators and the staff at the Behavioral Health Center. The Behavioral Health Center has a diverse population of patients from geriatrics and adults, to adolescents and children, and Anne loves the challenge of helping these very different groups of patients. Patient education is one area that she especially loves.  But what Anne enjoys most about her job is that every day is different and she usually learns something new every day.

An exciting service being implemented at the Behavioral Health Center is an outpatient pharmacy that will have an emphasis on follow up care once the patients have been discharged. Not only will a patient be able to have their prescriptions filled before they leave, the hope is that pharmacists will be able to follow up with patients to discover whether the patient is having any problems with taking their medications and most importantly, whether they are adhering to their regimen. Other plans for the new pharmacy include a long-acting injection clinic and MTM.

One other thing that keeps Anne “in the know” in psychiatry is being a CPNP member. She especially likes reading emails from CPNP’s list serve. She reports, “The information obtained is worth the cost of the membership alone!”