Distinguished Alumnus / Schmiedt honored by college for consulting work

For pharmacist Dean Schmiedt, it was right time at the right place.

Shortly after graduation from South Dakota State University, the federal government enacted new regulations requiring that skilled nursing homes have a pharmacist review patients’ medications monthly. . His boss at Lovdahl’s Drug, in Little Falls, Minnesota, wasn’t interested in doing that task.

Schmiedt, a 1973 SDSU grad, picked up the work as a side job. He ended up becoming a full-time independent consultant pharmacist and a leader in the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists. 

Earlier this fall, Schmiedt, of Fort Ripley, Minnesota, was honored by SDSU’s College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions as its 2024 Distinguished Alumnus.

It is the second time in less than eight months for Schmiedt to be honored by his alma mater. On March 2, the Schmiedts were recognized by the Alumni Association as the SDSU Family of the Year.

Comes from a pharmacy family

Dean Schmiedt comes from a long line of pharmacists, beginning with his grandfather Edgar Schmiedt, a 1925 SDSU pharmacy graduate who started working at a pharmacy in Centerville after graduation. Edgar bought the business in 1946 and renamed it Schmiedt Drug. Stan, a 1953 pharmacy grad and Dean’s father, purchased the drug store in 1961. 

Working the soda fountain, delivering prescriptions and stocking shelves was part of the routine of life for the teenage Schmiedt.

Going to SDSU and pursuing pharmacy “just seemed like a natural fit,” he said. “I didn’t give it a thought.” It was a bonus that he liked chemistry and that he liked “the fact that we were helping people. I liked the interactions we had with patients who came into my father’s and grandfather’s pharmacy.” 

In the late 1960s, the goal of almost every pharmacy student was to eventually run their own pharmacy. 

Taking a new path

Schmiedt was no different, but he did have a “clinical bent” and enjoyed Dr. Bernie Hietbrink’s pharmacology course, where he learned how various drugs affect the body. He added he enjoyed counseling patients, although pharmacists didn’t do much of that then. That was considered to be the physician’s territory.

When he began reviewing the medications of nursing home patients in 1974, he could put his pharmacology knowledge to use and counsel. “We had great facilities that we worked with. Facilities desired to do the best for their residents. 

“During our medication regimen reviews, we looked at virtually everything  relating to residents’ medications. If there was an issue that needed a physician’s attention, written comments were made.”  

He operated Minnesota Pharmacy Solutions from 1974 to 2016. Initially it was a side business. He was a pharmacist at St. Gabriel’s Hospital in Little Falls from September 1975 to December 1987. In January 1988, he gave up a secure income to become an entrepreneur in his adopted town of Little Falls, Minnesota.  Dean’s wife, Karleen, was supportive of taking the risk.

A growing business

The gamble paid off. Within a year he had given up a side job as a hospital pharmacist elsewhere and was consulting full-time. Jane Hauer joined the firm and later SDSU graduate Jody Ellingson joined the team. Schmiedt peaked at nearly 30 facilities in central Minnesota. 

“We assisted facilities in complying with the multitude of federal and state medication regulations. There was a strong educational component in our services,” Schmiedt said.

Mike Deuth, who served as administrator of two facilities that Minnesota Pharmacy Solutions had contracts with, said, “Dean was 100% ethical and detail oriented. I worked with a lot of pharmacy consultants over my career. Dean was by far  the most detail oriented. He made sure every i was dotted and every t was crossed. 

“If a state regulator was in your facility, he was equally as concerned as the facility about getting tagged. He did everything he could to be sure we were in compliance.”

Always seeking new, innovative areas to provide services, he was involved in many other areas. These included serving as a member of the multi-disciplinary treatment team seeing patients and their caregivers at the Memory Care Clinic, St. Cloud, Minnesota, and being a voting member for Medica’s Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee. He was the only pharmacist along with about 20 physicians of various specialties. 

He also served on several councils within the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, which he considered a career highlight.  This put him in position to offer input to people who influenced or made decisions on federal regulations. 

As a member CMS/ Pioneer Network Food and Dining Clinical Standards Taskforce in 2011, he contributed to writing the new clinical standards of practice for food/dining in skilled nursing facilities. 

He has published several pharmacy journal articles and presented at the ASCP national convention.

Honored by his pharmacy peers

Schmiedt also created an Educational Needs Assessment test that nursing homes could give their nursing staff to assess their medication knowledge. That caught national attention. He received the 1998 Eli Lilly Educational Achievement Award from the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists. It was published in the association’s journal 

In 2009, he received the association’s Practice Innovation Award for an effort that took him to senior dining sites in central Minnesota.

“At a conference, the director of the CARITAS Senior Dining Program for Central Minnesota was talking with me. She asked if we might be able to do something for them. They had numerous senior dining sites. We developed an innovative program for them which received grant funding. This involved giving a brief educational talk on a relevant medication-related topic, such as proper administration of your eye drops. Then we were available to diners to answer their medication-related questions for an hour. 

“The questions would just pour out. We collected a lot of data from the project and published a paper in the ASCP Journal,” Schmiedt said.   

Serving as an independent consultant was the opposite of how most of the industry operated, Schmiedt said. 

“Traditionally, most nursing homes had their consulting pharmacist provided by a provider pharmacy. We had no potential conflicts of interest.

“We operated at a very high clinical level and were innovative. We prevented unnecessary drugs, adverse drug reactions, hospitalizations and deaths. We knew federal and state regulations very, very well. We could help nursing homes with compliance for those regs. We took the time to do everything the way it was supposed to be done, always in the best interests of the patient or resident,” Schmiedt said.

It is that approach that earned him the college’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

In retirement, and his wife, SDSU graduate Karleen, are supporters of the Hobo Day Committee and giving back to their community as active Little Falls Lions Club members.