Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, BETHESDA, MD  –  
The Navy and Army recently recognized two Walter Reed pharmacists with awards in annual competitions that include nominations from agencies throughout each service.

Dr. Elena Vagichev earned the 2024 Navy Civilian Pharmacist of the Year Award, while Dr. Kelli Bankard earned the 2024 Army LaFleur Rx Educator Award. They received their awards during the Walter Reed town hall meeting on December 10.

“With over a decade of service to Navy Pharmacy, Dr. Elena Vagichev continues to prove herself an indispensable readiness asset and stalwart clinical pillar within the Military Health System,” stated Navy Cmdr. Andrew Benson, director for clinical support at Walter Reed, who nominated Vagichev for the honor.

He pointed out that Vagichev “recognized an opportunity to significantly impact pre-diabetes patients,” by creating a clinical pharmacist-directed prediabetes initiative at Walter Reed targeting at-risk populations. He explained that she “leveraged data analysis on existing electronic health record reports, identifying empaneling patients meeting prediabetes criteria.”

“These patients are provided with clinical pharmacist support in the areas of nutrition and lifestyle management, weight management, diabetes education, and medication management,” Benson continued. He added that more than 5,000 prediabetes patients had been identified as of August when he nominated Vagichev for the award.

“Dr. Vagichev actively prioritizes interventions for prediabetes in active-duty services members, ever supporting the medically ready force,” he furthered.

Vagichev also worked to increase access to care at Walter Reed’s Obesity Clinic, Benson added. “In addition to providing lifestyle and pharmacotherapy management to patients, Dr. Vagichev also provides significant administrative and consultative support to the clinic staff. Her efforts directly resulted in a 300 percent increase in appointments, with a three-fold increase in new patient enrollment.”

Vagichev also served as the student coordinator for Walter Reed’s pharmacy bringing students from pharmacy schools across the country to Walter Reed for various rotations.

“Sought out for her outstanding teaching and mentoring abilities across disciplines, Dr. Vagichev delivered multiple lectures to providers across the MHS as part of the National Capital Region (NCR) Pain Initiative Applied Functional Medicine Program,” Benson noted.

He also said Vagichev adopted Q-Anywhere 24/7 to allow around-the-clock access to pharmaceutical care for beneficiaries at Walter Reed.
“Dr. Vagichev rolled out the MHS GENESIS Patient Portal messaging feature that lets patients communicate directly with the pharmacy without having to call. This directly resulted in drastic improvements to call center wait times, with the time to answer at approximately one minute now.
“Under her leadership, wait times across the department dropped to an all-time facility low, down nearly 50 percent from the previous year.”
He said she also spearheaded a department-wide process improvement project to reduce the pharmacy not-in-stock medications.

Army LaFleur Rx Educator Award

“An integral member of the Walter Reed team for the past 17 years, Dr. Bankard is a paragon of clinical pharmacy who takes every opportunity to precept and train the next generation of pharmacists,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Danielle Kerr, deputy chief of pharmacy at Walter Reed, in nominating Bankard for the 2024 Army LaFleur Rx Educator Award.
“[Bankard is] an invaluable rounding clinical pharmacist with the inpatient Internal Medicine (IM) service who singlehandedly manages three IM teams. In the past year alone, she followed 6,000 patients with 1,500 interventions in their care,” Kerr shared. “[She] is lauded by her residents as a fantastic teacher, and her high standard serves to mold them into adept and quick-thinking clinicians in the acute care environment,” she added.

Bankard is also credited with helping establish a trauma rotation in the Walter Reed pharmacy residency program, “creating officers who are ready to deploy and treat wartime injuries,” Kerr added.

“Dr. Bankard also championed the reformulation of core and elective rotations, recommending that acute care related topics (such as pain management and infectious disease) be classified as core rotations to further the readiness of Army residents for operational environments,” Kerr continued.

“In an effort to keep Walter Reed personnel at the forefront of pharmacy clinical practice, Dr. Bankard was instrumental in the implementation of the facility’s first Vancomycin Pharmacy-to-Dose program. With her immense knowledge of vancomycin pharmacokinetics and pharmacology, she helped draft the standard operating procedures for pharmacists to perform dosing and monitoring to improve patient safety outcomes,” Kerr added.

Kerr also lauded Bankard’s mentorship, stating, “[She] served as a resource to train and mentor her peers through the new process, including providing 10 in-services to the IM teams. Her efforts directly contributed to the Pharmacy Department managing 600 vancomycin patients since project go-live,” Kerr stated.

Bankard also supports the Defense Health Agency Clinical Pharmacy program and is recognized as a “preceptor and leader in the Walter Reed pharmacy residency program, is a constant contributor to the drafting of Military Health System-wide policies and is an infallible mentor and trainer to her peers,” Kerr added.