Today’s healthcare environment asks for more than just clinical accuracy. It calls for a deep under-standing of how medications move through global supply chains and intricate financial systems. Pharmacy is a major cost driver and plays a key role in patient safety. With drug costs on the rise and regulations tightening, pharmacists have stepped out of dispensaries and into executive leadership roles.
The shift calls for leaders who see pharmacy as essential to the organization’s mission. At Northwell Health, Lisa Mulloy, Senior Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer, oversees pharmacy operations across 28 hospitals and more than1,000 ambulatory sites. She bridges acute care and community practice to support consistent, effective medication management. Northwell Health is a nonprofit health system based in New York and one of the largest healthcare providers in the region. It serves millions of patients across New York and Connecticut and is recognized for medical research, education, and an extensive outpatient care network.
Strategic integration at Northwell Health
Lisa looks after the entire patient journey. Her role spans ambulatory and acute hospital settings, and community health programs. Since becoming Chief Pharmacy Officer in 2022, she has built an
infrastructure that highlights pharmacy’s diverse impact. She’s organized her department into six pillars: clinical, operational, regulatory, supply chain, financial and ambulatory.
“I saw it as different objectives. We needed infrastructure to show all the layers of pharmacy in acute and ambulatory settings,” Lisa explains. The structure puts the pharmacy team at the table in multiple areas across the organization. The financial arm includes revenue cycle management and informatics, creating a comprehensive service that ensures drugs are built correctly and patients are billed accurately.
By placing subject matter experts in charge of each pillar, Lisa ensures the organization has clear points of contact for operational and financial matters. The structure gives pharmacy leaders a platform to advocate for their teams and participate in clinical and operational discussions. As Lisa says, “I thought it was important to not only create that team, but to empower those direct re-ports to have a voice.” Her approach keeps pharmacy involved in system-level decisions and helps others understand the field’s complexity.
Career evolution
Lisa’s journey to the executive office spans three decades at Northwell Health. She started with research, then moved into oncology and pediatrics to get a better grasp of medication management. Her career shifted when she entered the revenue cycle, where clinical expertise was rare. There, she mastered billing components and gained knowledge around billing regulations and
coding. “I gained a deep understanding of what was necessary from a pharmacy perspective, which served as a springboard to my current role,” Lisa recalls. “You must understand how a medication is configured within our digital systems to ensure its accurately reflected in the patient’s billing and records.”
Lisa works collaboratively across Northwell’s arms, with Vivo Health, its retail and specialty pharmacy division. Years ago, the system split specialty and retail from acute hospital pharmacy, but Lisa fosters ongoing partnerships.
“The teams had already worked closely together,” Lisa observes. “Collaboration and overlap are essential, and our regular director meetings help us stay updated on what’s happening and each team’s progress at every stage.”
The partnership is evident in programs like “meds to bed,” where the specialty team facilitates discharge medications while hospital staff support. Supply chain and 340B programs also benefit from the overlap. Lisa ensures that leaders from different areas maintain a clear understanding of collective progress.
Digital transformation with Epic
One of the most significant projects facing the pharmacy team is the transition to Epic, a new electronic health record system. Because Northwell Health is so large, the rollout occurs in phases, and the pharmacy plays a central role in the command center setup. Lisa’s team serves as subject
matter experts for councils that approve order sets and system builds.
She has overseen the successful integration of medication workflows in go-live phases and established new protocols for medication data management. “We are the subject matter experts for many of those groups that need to have the approval for things to move forward,” Lisa states. “The scale is large, so trying to incorporate us at each one of those journeys and each one of those councils really helps facilitate a more robust electronic health record.” The team follows a simple rule: anything that touches medication goes through pharmacy.
Data use extends beyond the health record and into artificial intelligence. While pharmacy has long used tools for drug diversion surveillance, Lisa is driving the department toward more advanced analytics. The team utilizes AI logic within the Epic tool and is exploring predictive models for the supply chain to improve forecasting.
“Where I see the future for us, specifically for pharmacy, is some of those predictive models. Once we have more robust data and get better at capturing those analytics, we can really use that to develop our order sets and make them more indication-based,” Lisa observes.
Still, Lisa keeps the human aspect of care front and center. She highlights that while technology is important, clinical expertise and good judgment matter most. “It’s on the forefront. We need it, but we must use it wisely, so we don’t lose sight of the human and logical elements,” Lisa points out.
Lisa’s leadership philosophy centers on team success rather than individual achievement. She considers herself a team player, a quality she brings from her interest in sports. To Lisa, the collective accomplishment of the department is the primary metric of her own performance, and she operates from a comfort zone built on collaboration. “For me, success is seeing my team successful. I have always felt that it’s never about me as an individual,” Lisa reflects. The focus on the group dynamic ensures that the department’s reputation and effectiveness remain the priority over any single title or accolade.
She fosters a culture of trust and integrity, believing that while skills can be taught, chemistry and authenticity must be present from the start. “You need to make decisions; you need to make changes,” Lisa shares.
“If you don’t start with making those small change decisions now, it’s going to be very hard to make those larger decisions later. It helps build confidence.” She urges her staff to be active observers and listeners, especially when visiting various hospital and ambulatory sites. By empowering her team to have a voice, she keeps the pharmacy as a respected partner for providers, nurses, and the community.
Looking ahead, Lisa intends to keep the pharmacy team agile as the healthcare environment continues to change. Whether dealing with a supply chain disruption or a public health initiative, the focus remains on making the journey of medication adherence easier for every patient population. By maintaining a presence at the leadership table and a commitment to operational excellence, Lisa continues to shape how pharmacy functions as a cornerstone of the health system.
