Connecting the Dots: Pharmacist Jenora Parker Innovates for GBMC Patients

How can we make it easier for cancer patients to get their medications – even the very expensive ones? 

Across GBMC, there are numerous professionals dedicated to solving that challenge. The answer can be as individual as the patient. As Manager of Specialty and Outpatient Pharmacy Services, Jenora Parker, BS, PharmD, is almost always part of the solution. 

Dr. Parker has led the Specialty and Outpatient Pharmacy team since before GBMC opened its new pharmacy in the Friedman building. “GBMC has been a real labor of love for me,” she says. “When I came, we had a very small pharmacy in a room inside the inpatient pharmacy . We opened the Specialty-Outpatient Pharmacy in that closet.” 

Dr. Parker and her team got to work building the program and finding new ways to ensure specialty prescriptions reached the patient exactly as ordered. 

One interdisciplinary project Dr. Parker developed at GBMC is the Meds to Beds Program. This initiative is designed to help patients stay healthy after they leave GBMC. Dr. Parker explains: “Meds to Beds is a program where we bring the medication directly to the patient who is about to be discharged. So, when they leave, they don't have to go to the pharmacy to get their medication. We fill it; and we bring it right to their bedside.” 

The program is not just good for the patient; it’s good for GBMC, too. By sending the patient home with a full supply of medications, the program makes it easier for the patient to follow doctors’ orders and fully recover. “If you put the patient at the center of everything that you do, you're always making the right decision. Always,” she says. “I've been a pharmacist for 20 years now, and that has always been my philosophy about patient care. 

“When you put the patient first, the prescription volume comes. Increases come because the word-of-mouth travels quickly. People know they can trust GBMC. And I take great pride in keeping that level of service that high, that exceptional. We all do.” 

Providing medications for cancer patients can be especially complex. The specialty pharmacy team partners with oncologists, financial navigators, nurse navigators, foundations, and pharmaceutical manufacturers along the way to bring therapy within reach. “Previously, a patient may have their infusion administered here and need to get their pre-meds at the pharmacy close to home,” she explains. “And that’s not necessarily where they get their maintenance medication. So, you have one patient who is getting their therapy from three or four different places. 

“I thought, ‘This is a problem we can solve. We can treat the total patient.’” Now, when a cancer patient comes to the Sandra R. Berman Pavilion to visit their oncologist, they can get their medications filled while they are here, easing at least one burden. “In a nutshell, what I do is connect the dots,” Dr. Parker says. “I connect the inpatient to the outpatient, and I make sure that the patient has a streamlined approach to medication delivery.” She and her team also support every effort to make the medication affordable. 

Jenora keeps very busy outside work, as well. She participates in community outreach on behalf of GBMC and keeps very busy with her family. She is the mom of two very active children, Joliette (Jojo), 13, and Noah, 10. Both are talented athletes. Like her mother, “JoJo” is also a singer. Jenora brings her strong, elegant voice to church, and JoJo also sings with the Children’s Chorus at the John’s Hopkins Peabody Institute. With support from her mother and family, Jenora manages to keep them all on track, even on the days when she feels like a chauffeur. 

While she and her Specialty and Outpatient Pharmacy team collaborate with providers behind the scenes, they nonetheless take their patients’ health personally. One man who happens to work at GBMC has been taking medication for metastasized prostate cancer for 5 years. Every time their paths cross, Jenora is reminded why she’s a pharmacist and why she is at GBMC. “I’m starting to see the longevity of our patients, which is different now,” she says. 

The thoughtful smile as Dr. Parker says this tells you everything. She is already looking ahead to how his needs might change and how her team can help.