by Danny Bonvissuto

Mark Sullivan, PharmD, MBA, BCPS, has been promoted from associate chief pharmacy officer to chief pharmacy officer. His new responsibilities include Vanderbilt University Hospital operations, the retail, specialty and multiple contract pharmacy enterprise, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s corporate pharmacy services.

“The pharmacy has always had a strong team with great collaboration with our physicians, nurses and other partners,” Sullivan said. “The opportunity to advocate on their behalf and help position the pharmacy team to support our patients, providers and staff is what excites me.”

Sullivan replaces Jim Hayman, MS, MBA, who transitioned to the role of Executive Vice President for VUMC’s new Shared Clinical Services Division, and will continue to report directly to him.

“I am delighted that Mark could move into my previous position,” Hayman says. “He has done a great job leading Pharmacy’s hospital and clinic operations and I am confident he will be equally successful in his new role.”

With the continuing national shortage of pharmacy technicians in mind, maintaining a high-performing pharmacy workforce is one of Sullivan’s many goals.

“There are significant headwinds for federal programs related to drug cost that I will be following with the retail and specialty pharmacy team,” he said. “We are a year into a project in the clinics to better support our patients by offering clinic-administered infusion and injection services along with support to obtain insurance approvals for prior authorizations.

“We’ve just worked with the adult ambulatory clinic leadership team to propose a process to support prior authorizations for retail prescriptions and will bring forward an implementation plan for this. Planning for service to the LINK building and supporting service expansion in other offsite clinics is another ongoing area of focus. Working with our Business Operations and Department of Finance colleagues to optimize what the pharmacy can do to support the enterprise will be an ongoing focus as well.”

Sullivan joined Vanderbilt University Hospital in 1988 as a PRN pharmacist on the fourth floor pediatric pharmacy satellite and became a full-time staff pharmacist in 1990. He has served in advancing clinical, operations and leadership roles for more than three decades.

Sullivan is a Fellow of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, serves as chair-elect of the Autonomous Pharmacy Advisory Board and as an elected Director at Large of the Pharmacy Practice Leaders Section at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and received the Tennessee Health System Pharmacists Association Pharmacist of the Year award in 2021.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from University of Tennessee at Martin; a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from Auburn University; a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Mississippi and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Massey School at Belmont University.