Retirement

As you know by now I retired at the end of January after 20+ years at Kaiser Permanente, the 20 best years of my pharmacy career. I had planned to cut back to half time at the beginning of 2010 as a way to ease into retirement, but some health issues accelerated the retirement process a bit.

I love Kaiser Permanente as a health system, and I love the people that work for KP; now I get to experience it from the side of the patient. I loved drug information and formulary management, and I will miss it dearly. It was my privilege to work with many of you over the years, even if we only met over the phone. I will miss the talented and dedicated pharmacists, technicians, and clinicians that I was able to serve. A special thanks to the close-knit team in DIF (Emily, Diane, Pontus, Sunshine, Roy, Jennifer) who were my partners.

Emily threw a wonderful retirement party for me on January 28 at the World Trade Center in downtown Portland. About 90 folks attended, and I am grateful for the opportunity to see you all once again. I cannot thank Emily, Dean, and Nancy enough for making this happen. Among those in attendance were my sons, Andy from Redmond and Pete from Eugene, and of course, my wife Marge. Colleagues who I worked with at Good Sam (1973-83) and St. V (1984-89) also came, some of whom I worked with at multiple stops in my Portland pharmacy career. I've worked with Diane Ditmer since the early days at Good Sam, and then we both had the good sense to end up at KPNW. Emily went the extra mile, ordering cake, flowers, and a guest book for the occasion. Emily also prepared the "tribute" flier that was at the entrance. She gave me credit for some things that I played only a small part in, which points out the collaborative approach used in Clinical Pharmacy Services amongst the DIF, DUIT, FAST, Pharmacy Systems, Purchasing, and MMP folks. And while I'm throwing out acronyms, I can't forget my wonderful RFTC colleagues. Emily ran interference for me, stripping away the politics and allowing me to do my job the way I wanted it done. She was truly a great and trusted supervisor, and I love her for all that she did for me.

Thanks to all the specialty department folks I was privileged to work with: Neurology, Rheumatology, Addiction Medicine, Physiatry, Mental Health, Anesthesiology, Orthopedics.... And good luck to Laura DeSimone, who takes over my Pain and Mental Health responsibilities. She is well qualified and will do a super job. Thanks also to all the folks who sent me cards expressing well wishes regarding my health and on my retirement. Much appreciated, just sorry that I don't have the time to answer each one individually. You can follow my progress on my blog, http://normmuilenburg.blogspot.com/

Best regards, and thrive!

Norm