2021 Health Care Champions Technician: David Wolfrath

When the COVID-19 vaccine became available, it was David Wolfrath who registered Mercy Hospital Springfield as a vaccination site. As executive director of pharmacy, it’s his role to ensure that access to medicinal care is safe and efficient.

“As Mercy is a leader of health care in the Ozarks, my role at Mercy helps ensure that the patients we see receive safe and effective medication therapy,” Wolfrath says. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, I led the effort to procure the COVID vaccine. In December, I helped bring the first COVID vaccine to southwest Missouri.”

Wolfrath’s work resulted in establishing a vaccination clinic where the first area health care workers were inoculated. He also assisted in ensuring other state hospitals, universities and departments had access to the vaccine. Wolfrath still spends large amounts of his time coordinating COVID vaccine programs to make sure everyone has the opportunity to protect themselves against the virus.

After earning his doctor of pharmacy license from University of Florida, Wolfrath completed residency at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, Florida, where he worked as a clinical pharmacist. He also completed a specialized residency in health system pharmacy while working as a clinical pharmacist and clinical instructor at University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics. Afterward, he returned to Florida for two years to work as pediatric pharmacy supervisor at Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida and HealthPark Medical Center in Fort Myers. In 2012, Wolfrath moved to Missouri to become pharmacy manager for University of Missouri Health Care in Columbia, working in both women’s and children’s care. He landed in the Queen City as executive director of pharmacy for Mercy Hospital Springfield in 2019.

Wolfrath has been at the helm of numerous health initiatives, including implementing communication tools for Mercy leadership during the pandemic and serving on its Hospital Medication Safety Committee, which evaluates patient safety processes. He led the conversion to electronic medical records and is on the Board of Pharmacy Hospital Advisory Committee.

Wolfrath says he’s just as concerned with staff safety as he is with patient safety and has been part of numerous initiatives that protect and enhance the practices of pharmaceutical staff.

“My professional motivation is to provide support and structure for all our pharmacy co-workers – pharmacists and technicians – that I have been called to serve in my leadership role,” he says. “I am currently participating in an 18-month leadership Advanced Formation series designed to equip senior leaders for the roles and responsibilities of ministry leadership.”

Wolfrath also gives back to the next generation of pharmacists as lead preceptor for Mercy’s pharmacy residency program. He has been recognized for his altruism as Volunteer of the Year from the Missouri Society of Health-System Pharmacists.