Elizabeth DeBell, PharmD

Dr. Elizabeth DeBell wants to talk about your pain. And so the clinical pharmacist’s one-on-one conversations with patients often start with a simple invitation: “Tell me, what’s going on?”

“That one question sparks the entire thing, and I just let them guide where the conversation goes from there. … There can be a lot of stigma involved [with taking pain medication], so I want people to know that I’m somebody they can talk to honestly and openly, and that I’ll make sure their pain is taken care of.”

Dr. DeBell is responsible for managing all the medications someone might take before, during, and after surgery at St. Peter’s Hospital, a community hospital in Albany, New York. Many people already live with chronic pain, so now they must manage temporary pain from a surgical procedure on top of existing pain. If someone comes in for weight-loss surgery, she must optimize their care plan to account for their body’s reduced ability to absorb oral medications. For patients who take suboxone to treat opioid disorder, she recommends which pain medications can be safely combined with it.

Clinical pharmacist’s one-on-one conversations with patients often start with a simple invitation: Tell me, what’s going on?”

Dr. DeBell’s workdays are a busy mix of running customized reports to know who to see, scheduling pain consultations, and checking on recovering patients. She also makes sure people have what they need to manage their regimen at home — and that they get any overdue vaccinations, too.

“There is a pharmacist involved in the care of every single patient that comes through the doors.”

The physicians and nurses at St. Peter’s have come to know Dr. DeBell as a go-to resource for any medication-related questions. What could be causing this side effect? Will these two medications have any adverse interactions? Could we give this medication as a liquid instead of a tablet to make it easier for the patient to take? She’s ready to answer them all.

“Healthcare is a team effort. I love being part of that team because everyone brings something different to the table as we coordinate care for each individual patient. By discussing patients together as a group, we improve safety, we improve care, and we improve outcomes.”

Dr. DeBell followed an unusual path to pharmacy. A lifelong lover of math and science, she earned a bachelor’s degree in biology. Unsure where to go from there, she became a store manager for Stewart’s, a local coffee and convenience store chain. “I attribute a lot of my ability to chat with patients to all the characters I met at the coffee shop,” she says with a smile. Eight years later, Dr. DeBell was ready to make a change. After shadowing people in several health-related roles, she found her “home” as a pharmacy technician for a large retail chain. She was drawn to the pharmacy’s orderly nature and impressed by how deeply the head pharmacist cared for patients.

I love helping people and being able to provide information in a way that’s easy to understand.”

Within a few years, she’d earned her Doctor of Pharmacy from D’Youville University in Buffalo and matched with St. Peter’s for her post-graduate residency.

“I love helping people and being able to provide information in a way that’s easy to understand. Being a pharmacist means getting to know them and tailoring therapy to them. It just feels really good to be able to help somebody, especially in a very vulnerable moment of their life.”

Dr. DeBell adds: “It took me a while to find [pharmacy], but it was worth the wait. And it just keeps getting better.”