The Future Leaders Awards program is brought to you in partnership with PointClickCare. The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of senior housing, skilled nursing, home health, and hospice care. To see this year’s Future Leaders, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/.

Vaishali Chokshi, pharmacy operations specialist manager – customer success at PharmScript, has been named a 2022 Future Leader by Skilled Nursing News.

To become a Future Leader, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be a high-performing employee who is 40-years-old or younger, a passionate worker who knows how to put vision into action, and an advocate for seniors, and the committed professionals who ensure their well-being.

Chokshi sat down with Skilled Nursing News to talk about her career trajectory and the collaborative, creative outlook that must guide the industry going forward.

What drew you to this industry?

As a fresh graduate from pharmacy school, I joined the retail world and worked as a community pharmacist for several years. In January of 2012, I made the switch to the long-term care world by joining PharmScript, and while a complete novice in the LTC realm, I knew with great certainty that this is exactly where I belonged.

The LTC industry provided me with this perfect balance of retail, hospital and industry setting that I was seeking. I was able to work in tandem with prescribers filling medication orders, but in a novel setting that allowed me to also directly engage with the caregivers of a specific subset of a patient population. Ultimately, I had the opportunity to be involved in patient care, but with a broader and richer spectrum of experiences and opportunities.

What’s your biggest lesson learned since starting to work in this industry?

The exposure to the inner workings and collaboration that takes place within myriad departments was truly eye-opening for me.

There are entire teams devoted to each aspect of order fulfillment and facility communication, including billing, customer success, operations, each fulfilling their day-to-day responsibilities, but at the end of the day, it’s all about the patient. When owners and administrators communicate with pharmacy leadership about the needs of a singular patient or specific medication, it serves as a reminder of what we are all working toward, and makes our work meaningful.

If you could change one thing with an eye toward the future of skilled nursing, what would it be?

Invest in and potentially incentivize skilled nursing operators. Each nursing facility wants to lead in providing the best quality care for their residents. We can implement technologies and advancements to make improvements, but ultimately the best care is achieved with the talented and compassionate staff that care for our residents. We must make efforts to reduce employee turnover and recruit and retain caregivers, because stable, educated staff make the best use of the technologies available to them, and become more involved with the patients and families they care for.

In a word, how would you describe the future of skilled nursing?

Resourceful.

What quality must all Future Leaders possess?

There is not a singular quality but rather qualities that an effective leader should possess. I would like to highlight two main traits: an open-minded approach and effective communication skills.

Each person approaches a situation with a perspective shaped by their personal experience, and a leader has an open mind to respect these different perspectives and recognize that each contributes value, without reacting instinctively or discounting any. And to get to the most effective outcome and productive conversation, each situation should be laid out with all relevant details, but impartially, with room for implementing and hearing everyone’s view or suggestion.

If you could give advice to yourself looking back to your first day in the industry, what would it be and why?

I would encourage my younger self to ask more questions and soak up all the information available to me about my immediate work and the company/industry as a whole, without being intimidated. This early knowledge is the foundation for all future growth.