Angela Gosen, RPh, Pharmacist

"I completed my Pharmacy internship at St. Luke's Hospital in the late 80s while I attended Ferris State University. I left to do retail pharmacy at Kmart for a time and decided to reach back out to the hospital in 1991.

The pharmacy at St. Luke’s wasn’t hiring at the time, so I inquired with the Human Resources department about other job openings. I interviewed with Dale Schultz two days later and wound up with a job as a Staff Pharmacist at the Saginaw General Hospital Pharmacy across the street.

When I returned to the hospital setting in a less familiar building, I was a little nervous. But I came in with the attitude that I was just starting from scratch—a clean slate. I was prepared to get to know new people and have made the best relationships in the process.

During the merger in 1998, many service lines were relocated between the two facilities, which impacted the types of services and medications we handled in both pharmacies. We had cross-training, where the St. Luke’s employees would come work our area, and we would work in their area at Saginaw General. We exchanged different ideas and processes, some that worked and some that didn’t. It was all a learning experience.

Having worked for both hospitals, the two had very different cultures. There was a feeling of ‘your team’ and ‘their team’ between the two campuses. It made it very hard when you had duplicate services within half a block of each other—you were always competing.

I think merging Saginaw General and St. Luke’s was the best thing to do from a perspective of combining and improving services to provide better patient care to the area."

Pictured: Angela Gosen, RPh

Pictured: Angela Gosen's Saginaw General Name Badge

“Though Saginaw General and St. Luke’s merged in 1998, Covenant HealthCare still has multiple pharmacies across campuses. It was decided that one building would become the site of the ‘main pharmacy’ in 2018. 

The news came with mixed emotions—no different than any other department had in the past. While most departments had been merged for almost two decades, this was still new for our team.

With plans still being developed for the new pharmacy, a serious event unfolded in the spring of 2018. While completing routine cleaning in the clean IV room, a technician accidentally hit a water sprinkler on the ceiling. This caused a severe water leak with 30 gallons of water coming into the clean room every minute until the fire department could shut off the sprinkler. The equipment in the IV room was a total loss, and the water damage meant carpet removal, deep cleaning, and a different workflow for the whole Pharmacy team.

We essentially had to merge IV room operations overnight. We had many pharmacists and technicians from both campuses working together for the first time, despite having worked at the hospital for decades. With the flood, we didn’t have a lot of time to figure out new people and personalities. This was a flash merging of cultures and workflows to ensure we could continue to provide extraordinary care for our patients.

We had to put our separate campus views aside and quickly find a way for all of us to provide that culture, high-quality patient care, and safety that both hospitals had always been good at. At the end of the day, we were all there for the same reason—the patients.

The new ‘main’ Covenant HealthCare Pharmacy opened in the winter of 2018 with a brand-new look and a team with a combined knowledge/experience of 1,000 years. I guess you could say a tragedy helped two pharmacies unify.

We, as an organization and a department, have come a long way in terms of unity and working together. We have a lot of pharmacists who weren’t here for the merger in 1998 and just see Covenant HealthCare as one unit—not what used to be two separate hospitals. A lot of fresh ideas come from the newer pharmacists and technicians from both campuses.

I love working third shift; it’s a small, close-knit group. I have always been the ‘mother’ figure in my area—every team has one.

I can rely on my coworkers, whether it be personal or professional. My team has been very supportive through any hardships in life. My brother passed away earlier this year and before that, I was in a bad car accident. I had coworkers visit me when I was in the hospital. When my mother wasn’t doing well, my team was there to support me, picking up my shifts and checking in to see how I was doing. I really appreciated that.

I'm still learning after 32 years of being a pharmacist. You never stop the learning process and it's nice to know that people are willing to help you out. This team is always willing to give their input or help do a little extra research in order to provide the best patient care possible. That’s what we're here for.”

—Angela Gosen, RPh
Pharmacist, Covenant HealthCare
(Former Pharmacy Intern, St. Luke’s Hospital & Staff Pharmacist, Saginaw General Hospital)

Pictured: Angela Gosen, RPh