Many refer to their units, departments or hospital as “one big family.” Maybe it’s because we spend so much time together, or because some invite relatives to apply because it’s a great place to work. This section is about those connections. We want to hear your story. Email susan.mcdonald@hhchealth.org.
Twinning on the HHC Pharmacy Team
By Elissa Bass
There was one time — once — that identical twins Kristen and Katie Marti went their separate ways.
t was after both graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy in 2020. For residency, Kristen went to Hartford Hospital and Katie to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.
That was it.
After, they were both hired by Hartford HealthCare as clinical pharmacists. Kristen works in the Hartford Hospital transplant department and Katie for the ambulatory care pharmacy covering Farmington endocrinology and per-diem at Hartford Hospital.
In addition to being born at the same time, going all through school together, playing high school doubles tennis together, rooming and majoring in pharmacy at UConn together (a six-year program to earn PharmD degrees), the 27-year-olds currently live together, hang out together, train for road races together and generally enjoy life … together.
“We’re just best friends,” Kristen says. “We don’t get sick of each other.”
“It’s a bond that’s hard to describe,” Katie adds. “You just always have somebody there. We can’t read each other’s minds or anything but we are definitely on the same wavelength. We are always in sync, even when we’re not trying to be.”
In ambulatory care, Katie works primarily with patients who have diabetes to ensure their medications works for them, provide counseling, and ensure medication adherence.
In transplant, Kristen works with patients before surgery and provides follow-up.
“It’s very complex for transplant patients, and there is a lot of monitoring required from a medication standpoint,” she explains. “I provide medication education and counseling presurgery, manage their medications while they are hospitalized and then follow up post-transplant with more education.”
It’s a career both decided to pursue while still in high school.
“Growing up, we always thought the medical field was for us. There were so many avenues. We got jobs at CVS to see if we liked it. We loved it,” Katie says.
At work, they often get mistaken for each other, although they’ve never purposefully “Parent Trapped” anyone, a trick named after the movie in which twins switched places. Sometimes, they say a doctor who is rounding will mix them up, or someone will wave from across the parking lot. It can get confusing for them as well.
“If I don’t say hi back, then assume you know my sister,” Kristen says with a laugh.