In this installment of our Healthcare Affirmations series, we’re spotlighting Erica Bane, System Medication Safety Officer at a large healthcare system, whose career journey took her from the operating room to overseeing medication safety across an entire health system.
From Chemistry Class to Patient Safety Champion
Erica didn't grow up dreaming of pharmacy. “I don't think anybody, at least that I know, wakes up saying, 'I want to be a pharmacist when I grow up,’” she laughs. She loved chemistry and wanted to be a veterinarian, but when that path didn't pan out, her advisor asked, “What about pharmacy?”
Her response? “What's pharmacy?”
That question led to a career defined by continuous learning and following opportunities wherever they led. “I'm just the type of person who loves learning,” she says. After starting in main pharmacy staffing, Erica worked her way through different areas of the hospital, eventually landing in one of the most unexpected places: the operating room.
Safety in the Highest-Risk Environment
The OR became Erica’s proving ground. “It's probably one of your highest-risk areas in the hospital,” she explains, “because we don't use all of the safeguards that we use throughout our inpatient care settings.”
Unlike other hospital areas with multiple technological safety nets, the OR operates differently. Medications can be removed and administered without the usual checks and balances. Erica saw the inherent risk: “You are administering medication to a patient in a surgery, so a safeguard to that was bringing pharmacy in.”
Her work in the OR wasn't just about catching errors; it was about preventing them from happening in the first place. She helped establish processes requiring orders prior to surgery, ensuring medications were dosed appropriately for each patient's renal function, liver function, age, allergies, and the specific procedure being performed.
“It helped a lot of that process to make sure that we're doing our due diligence ahead of time," she says, “to make sure the medications are there when they need to be.”
Why Pharmacy in the OR?
Having a pharmacist in the operating room was rare—and still is. But organizations like ASHP (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists) and CSHP (California Society of Health-System Pharmacists) recognized the critical need.
“(ASHP and CSHP) really found a need to include pharmacists and grow their roles into the procedural settings because there is such an inherent risk for medications to be administered incorrectly,” Erica explains. "After seeing errors reported, they found a need to support having pharmacy represented in this area from a clinical and operational perspective."
While it's hard to quantify the exact dollar amount medication safety saves, prevented readmissions, decreased length of stay, and avoided adverse events, the impact is undeniable. “You're able to have another step in the process to have checks and balances for patients to get the right medications.”
Leading System-Wide Safety Today
Today, Erica oversees medication safety at the system level for all sites in the healthcare system. Her role has evolved from frontline clinical work to strategic leadership, but her commitment to safety remains constant.
A typical day involves reviewing medication-related events and near misses, investigating trends, and developing solutions that work across multiple facilities. “We have anywhere from three to five sites at a time that I'm looking at,’ she says. “We're looking at what the errors are? Where are they happening? How are they happening? Are they preventable?”
Her approach is thorough and multidisciplinary: partnering with nursing, physicians, IT, and pharmacy teams to address root causes rather than just symptoms. Whether it's refining Epic alerts, updating clinical decision support tools, or implementing new safety protocols, Erica's work touches every corner of patient care.
Making Safety Accessible
One of Erica's recent successes has been implementing hazardous drug safety information directly at the point of care. The initial challenge? Getting busy clinicians to actually use safety resources.
“A nurse that's used to administering a hazardous medication over and over again may not even want to look at a policy because they're like, ‘Well, I’m used to doing this,’” she explains. “It can cause drift in practice because we're requiring so many steps to get them the answer.”
Rhazdrugs proved to be the solution for embedding information where nurses already are: directly in the medication administration workflow. “It's directly in the medication. They can click on the Rhazdrugs link to see, ‘Oh, I just want to confirm, do I need double gloves on this? Or can I just use single gloves?’ Something as simple as that is more easily at their fingertips versus going to the policy.”
The response? Overwhelmingly positive. “They really did like that ease of access that Rhazdrugs provides.”
By minimizing steps, Erica’s team reduced both human error and at-risk behavior. “You’re putting a link directly where you need it to be, versus having to take five extra steps to get to where you need the information.”
Never Stop Learning
Despite her demanding role, Erica is currently pursuing her master's degree, focusing on healthcare leadership. “I would say that's probably my biggest thing—healthcare leadership, growth in that area,” she says.
She stays current through conferences like CSHP Seminar, the Pacific Coast Patient Safety Conference, and Becker's Healthcare Leadership Conference. She follows ISMP, the Medication Safety Officers Society (MSOS), ASHP, CSHP, and California Board of Pharmacy legislation updates. She even taps into Epic User Web forums to see what other health systems are doing with technology and safety prompts.
But perhaps most valuable is her network of fellow professionals. “I even reach out to other organizations as well. ‘Hey, what are you doing about this?’” she says. “Why reinvent the wheel if you don't need to?”
The Biggest Challenge
When asked about her biggest concern in healthcare today, Erica doesn't hesitate: Ever-evolving regulatory changes.
“When these laws become regulations, it has to be determined how they get implemented at the state level, it’s a lot," she says. “It’s hard to navigate because you have to say, ‘Okay, this is what I’m interpreting the law to say. How do we be compliant with that from an organization perspective?’”
She recognizes that regulations exist for a reason. “A lot of med safety is regulatory and compliance. It goes hand in hand. You don't have these regulations in place unless there was a need for new safety requirements.”
But navigating the complex, ever-changing landscape while ensuring both patient safety and organizational compliance requires constant vigilance, interpretation, and adaptation.
What Fuels the Fire
Throughout her career, Erica has navigated each new role by following her curiosity and commitment to making things better. From chemistry student to OR pharmacist to system safety leader, she’s driven by the same thing that brought her to pharmacy in the first place: a love of learning, a dedication to problem-solving, and a commitment to ensuring every patient receives safe, effective care.
Affirmation
"Put safety information where people need it, when they need it. Remove the extra steps, and compliance follows naturally."
Closing Reflection
At Rpharmy, we believe that medication safety improves when barriers are removed and the right information meets people at the point of care. Erica’s story reminds us that safety leadership is about persistence, collaboration, and making the safe choice the easy choice.
