Patient Care Provider of the Year

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Dr. Amy Bachyrycz strives to meet her state’s unique needs by combining her knowledge and experience gained behind the counter and behind the lectern.

As a Walgreens Patient Care Pharmacist and an assistant professor of pharmacy practice at the University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy, Dr. Bachyrycz uses her professional experience to better teach her students and uses her academic knowledge to better treat her patients.

These patients are often uninsured or underinsured in a state with limited physicians and several rural and under-served communities. Showing the true value of pharmacists, Dr. Bachyrycz works to provide medical access to these populations by offering community health screenings, immunization clinics, and free flu shot clinics.

Not only has she worked to improve care at the patient level, but she has also put effort into bringing about change on a legislative level. Along with a team of her peers from the New Mexico Pharmacists Association, Dr. Bachyrycz has helped to expand the role of the pharmacist to cover services most needed in her state.

Due to Dr. Bachyrycz’s efforts, pharmacists in New Mexico can now prescribe tobacco cessation therapy, offer immunizations, prescribe contraceptive treatments, and prescribe and administer tuberculosis tests. Currently, she is drafting legislation to designate hydrocodone as a controlled 2 substance and to make pseudoephedrine a prescription-only drug to decrease methamphetamine production.

“Prior to Amy’s entry into the industry in New Mexico, pharmacists’ functions were, while important, limited,” her nomination reads. “Their responsibilities and accountability have skyrocketed in large part due to her leadership and mettle to influence change.”

“Amy is the epitome of an industry trailblazer,” her nominator wrote.