A Prescription for Growth: Tammy Trodd’s CMH Journey
Tammy Trodd was a hairdresser in a past life. So, naturally, she ended up leading the Pharmacy at Campbellford Memorial Hospital.
The path between those two things wasn’t exactly part of some larger master plan. But, when Tammy decided to go back to school, the timing for the pharmacy technician program made the cut. So, she took the opportunity, started a new career, and eventually found herself working in nearby Peterborough.
Then, one random morning, she saw a job posting at CMH and decided to take a road trip and check out Campbellford. Something about this place reminded her of her childhood home in Merritt, British Columbia.
She had a feeling this was where she was supposed to be.
President and CEO Jeff Hohenkerk recently spent some time with Tammy as part of Team CMH: Listening to Lead, a series of one-on-one conversations with patient care leaders designed to help him better understand their teams, their experiences and what care looks like in different areas of the hospital.
And it didn’t take long for the conversation to get into the inner workings of the Pharmacy.
There was, for example, quite a bit of discussion about a hood. We could try to explain the technical details here, but perhaps the more important part was how Tammy talked about it. Her enthusiasm for the work, and for finding better ways of doing it, was impossible to miss.
That willingness to learn and change has been an important part of Tammy’s journey at CMH.
After working in the Pharmacy for 20 years, she had begun to see opportunities to do things differently. Some processes had remained largely the same for years, and Tammy found herself wondering what could be improved. Her involvement in the implementation of Epic helped change her perspective. Instead of simply adapting to change after it happened, she saw an opportunity to be part of making it happen. That experience was one of the things that ultimately inspired Tammy to move into leadership.
Today, she can look around the Pharmacy and see just how far the department has come. Technology has transformed the work, including a shift from paper-based processes to a much more digital environment. What makes Tammy particularly proud, though, is how her team responded.
“They adapted,” she told Jeff. There wasn’t a sense that technology was changing the purpose of their work. As Tammy put it, “It’s the same job. Just a different way of doing it.” That adaptability is especially important for a small team in an ever-changing technological landscape.
Tammy describes her Pharmacy team as hardworking, knowledgeable and incredibly flexible. They are also a lean team which makes communication particularly important. People know their roles, they talk to one another and, when something changes, they pivot and help wherever they can.
Tammy tries to bring that same approach to her own leadership.
If the team is short a pharmacy technician and she can step in and work a day, she does. When Tammy is away, she knows other members of the leadership team will step in to support the department.
For her, that reliability builds trust.
It is also one of the lessons she has learned since becoming a leader: almost nothing in a hospital happens entirely on its own.
Before stepping into leadership, Tammy says she didn’t fully appreciate just how interconnected decisions across a hospital can be. A change that might appear relatively straightforward from one perspective can affect multiple departments, processes and people.
Seeing all those moving parts was eye-opening.
But working in a small hospital has also given Tammy opportunities she doesn’t think she would have had elsewhere.
At CMH, she says, you often have to know how to do “A and B.” Roles can be broader, people need to be adaptable, and sometimes the answer to a challenge isn’t sitting neatly in front of you. You have to learn, problem-solve and find innovative ways to make things work.
“Nowhere else would I have had the opportunity to grow the way I have here,” she told Jeff.
And while much of the Pharmacy’s work may not be visible to patients, its connection to patient care is very real. One of the team’s primary interactions with patients is completing a Best Possible Medication History, or BPMH. It means talking with patients and families to understand exactly what medications someone is taking so nothing is missed and potential interactions can be identified.
For Tammy, those conversations are about more than compiling a medication list. They are another opportunity to make sure patients and families feel heard, involved and supported.
Tammy's journey at CMH has helped inspire the next generation, including her daughter Morgan, who is now a nurse at CMH.
Eventually, Tammy got the opportunity to turn the questions around on Jeff. She wanted to know what had surprised him about coming to CMH. Jeff talked about already having some familiarity with the organization before becoming CEO, including working with CMH leadership around Emergency Department staffing challenges and being aware of some of the pressures the hospital had faced.
Tammy also asked what motivates Jeff.
Jeff’s answer was less about one particular factor and more about a few questions he continues to ask himself: Is he still learning? Is he making a positive contribution? Is he helping build CMH for the future?
“As long as the answers continue to be yes,” he said, “there is still work to do.”
It was a fitting answer to a conversation with someone who’s own CMH story has been shaped by many of the same things.
Tammy came to CMH looking for an opportunity. She found a place where she could learn more, take on more and eventually help lead change herself.
And she’s still learning outside the hospital too.
Tammy recently bought a “new” house, although at 125 years old, new might be stretching the definition a little. That has led to a growing list of DIY projects. She has learned to fix a fridge and a dishwasher, is planning on installing new floors, and recently bought herself a chainsaw.
Which, depending on how those renovations go, may be either very good or slightly concerning news.
But perhaps it fits.
Whether it’s an old house, a new technology, or a process that has been done the same way for 20 years, Tammy seems quite comfortable looking at something and asking:
Can we do this better?
Maybe that’s the thread that connects Tammy’s CMH journey more than anything else.
Twenty years into a career she stumbled into somewhat serendipitously, she’s still learning, still adapting and still asking what could be better tomorrow than it is today.
