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UVA Health’s BEE (Being Excellent Everyday) Award recognizes clinical support team members who work alongside our nursing teams to deliver expert, compassionate care. This special program symbolizes the relationship between nursing and other members of the care team — the same way bees and flowers depend on one another. 

Several colleagues nominated Matthew Staples, pharmacist, ERC Outpatient Pharmacy:

"Matt is amazing! I was faced with a very complex and challenging discharge with many hiccups (oncology patient going home on hospice), but Matt was there every step of the way. He went above and beyond to make sure this patient and her family felt comfortable, confident, and safe. He helped me to determine the most affordable rescue seizure medication for home, filled out insurance paperwork to get a home medication filled slightly early, and was a constant source of positivity through my stress. I don't know how I would be able to perform my job without him! 

"Matt and a technician assisted with one of our newly diagnosed, lupus nephritis kiddos who needed to go home with mycophenolate mofetil in hand. Matt and the technician spent three-and-a-half hours on the phone with the family's insurance company to acquire the one-time override to have the prescription filled at ERC [Education Resource Center] Pharmacy, so the patient would be able to go home with this very crucial medicine instead of waiting a couple of days for the specialty pharmacy to fill and deliver." -Carolyn Hill

“Matt is always available for questions even when he's inundated with other responsibilities. He always takes the time to talk me through the many rejection claims I may encounter and advises me on how to overcome them. Through this education, he helps me to be more efficient with some aspects of the discharge process for our patients and ultimately improves their experience by making it more efficient.” -Emily Chen 

“Matt consistently goes out of his way to ensure my questions were answered and patient medications are provided in a timely manner. I was involved in a complicated discharge for a pediatric patient. He not only reviewed all the medications we were discharging the patient on to ensure that all the [labels] and quantities made sense — but he worked with me to change a medication [label] so the patient's insurance would cover the medication at discharge. He was incredibly proactive about confirming the date of discharge for the patient and demonstrated extreme professionalism when the patient's discharge date was delayed. Without his help, the patient would not have been discharged successfully.

“Next, I was involved in the discharge of another pediatric patient who was being discharged on multiple medications that were on shortage. The morning of the discharge, I reached out to one of the technicians at ERC, who confirmed all medications were currently in stock at the pharmacy. When this turned out not to be true later — Matt immediately reached out to the medication manufacturer and secured supply for the patient. He then had the medication overnighted to the patient's house so they would not miss a dose of the medication. I think this speaks to how willing he is to problem solve and go above and beyond for patients. I hope you can see he's a constant lifesaver for patients and pharmacists.”-Abigail Mathes

“Matt goes above and beyond time and time again for the pediatric neonatal population — an area that often gets overlooked. He attempts to make the discharge process as seamless as possible for the most complex patients and anticipates problems in advance of them occurring. He is very detail-oriented, thorough and patient in explaining the intricacies of the discharge process to inpatient pharmacists and providers who are less familiar with the process.” -Nicole Palazzolo

“Matt is, without a doubt, one of the most reliable pharmacists and coworkers I have had the pleasure of interacting with in my 10+ years as a pharmacist. It's often said by other pharmacists that Matt defines the ERC Pharmacy help chain — he is everyone's "go-to" person on a systematic level. Because of this, I can't possibly imagine the amount of pressure he has to handle: running the discharge pharmacy, helping everyone and navigating questions quickly, training our pharmacy residents/students, and getting so many medications where they need to go. Yet, he remains incredibly courteous and professional. He truly goes the extra mile to help all our patients. Whenever I have a question, he always ends the interaction with, ‘Please let me know if there's anything else I can do to help’ — even though I know he is incredibly busy.

“Matt has helped my own workflow tremendously. As a clinical pharmacist, I work with patients who have extensive barriers and I go to the ERC Pharmacy about once a week to pick up medications for them. Before I started working with Matt, this was a daunting process. Unpredictable and often long waits at the window, inconsistent communication, feeling guilty jumping in front of patients, creating a long line in the pharmacy if I had a long list, and most importantly — time out of my own workflow in the clinic helping patients often made pharmacy pickups an anxiety-provoking task.

“Matt offered to be part of the solution. He helped create a system in which I can provide a list in advance via Lync or email, collaborate to address any tweaks/access issues, and coordinate a pickup time to gather the medications after he has already wrung them out. This enhanced my workflow tremendously. Now I can consolidate fills without creating a long line behind me and be present in my clinic for more time in the workday, from which everyone benefits. This is no longer a daunting task, but one I actually enjoy as I get to catch up with Matt and learn a little bit from him about pharmacy workflow every time I visit. 

Matt also has helped facilitate some of my highest-impact interventions as a clinical pharmacist. He helped facilitate creation of pre-drawn pediatric medication syringes for a premature neonate with high-risk exposure to HIV (complicated by maternal non-adherence). He helped facilitate the Ryan White Clinic's Rapid Start Program by getting first-fill ART [antiretroviral therapy] ready upon the conclusion of an initial clinic visit, helping to establish a pattern of high adherence while engagement in care is high. This is a best practice strategy and has no doubt led to our program's success: a current, viral suppression rate of 93% among newly-diagnosed patients since January 2021, and a median time to viral suppression of 30 days upon establishing care — some of the best results in the state. Our department is stronger because of people like Matt. He wholeheartedly deserves this award and any other award for which pharmacist team members are eligible!” -Lindsey Buscemi

“In the last few years, Matt has indirectly become part of the pediatric clinical pharmacists' team because of the hoops he is always willing to pursue for our patients. There are countless examples that I can provide of how he always strives to facilitate smooth discharges without barriers. But his impact goes far beyond specific patient examples. Matt is always looking at the bigger picture — identifying how can we optimize our workflow to advocate for our patients.

“Zonisamide suspension historically was a medication the pharmacy always had to compound. In recent months, the manufacturer came out with a commercially-available suspension. The FDA approval led to some confusion. Practices differed among inpatient, outpatient, and our specialty pharmacy. Matt quickly recognized the importance of ensuring we were all saying the same things and approaching the new product in the same way. He escalated the issue to leadership and came in early for his shift to ensure his voice was part of the solution.

“The new, commercially-available product was onboarded to all locations with matching criteria for utilization as a result, making it easier to ensure there is continuity between sites. Matt always thinks about the bigger picture — advocating for improved processes so time and time again, we fixed the root problem rather than just placing a bandage on the situation.” -Christine Bryant

Nominations edited for privacy and clarity.

Know a deserving team member?

The Nursing Professional Governance Organization honors up to two UVA Medical Center team members each month with a BEE Award.