Pharmacist (Inpatient Pharmacy Supervisor)

Pharmacy Supervisor

The Pharmacy Supervisor is responsible for the professional and administrative management of Inpatient Pharmacy operations at the Seattle Division. Inpatient Pharmacy programs include discharge prescription services, unit dose drug distribution, IV admixture service, chemotherapy admixture service, controlled substance and high-cost drug accountability, drug information, TPN consulting, antimicrobial consulting, pharmacokinetic monitoring, research drug control, substance abuse treatment, spinal cord injury treatment services, support for the Bone Marrow Transplantation Service, and maintenance of a VHA All-Hazards Emergency Drug Cache. Duties and responsibilities include:

Clinical:

• Promote a patient-focused, team-based multi-disciplinary model of pharmaceutical care to promote drug prescribing, medication monitoring, and drug laboratory review that assures positive outcomes from medication use.
• Work to support a system where every patient has an inpatient pharmacist who takes responsibility for the quality of the patient's medication care provided. This model provides exceptional, timely pharmaceutical care services to all medical center patients.
• Assure pharmacists provide patient medication counseling by verifying patient understanding of the medication, proper medication use, expected outcomes, how to obtain more medication, and how the current prescription will be processed (mail or pickup).
• Work with the Inpatient Pharmacy Clinical Supervisor to ensure staff adhere to formulary process so patients receive the most cost-effective drug therapy.

Education:

• Conduct on-line training for new pharmacists, residents, pharmacy students, technicians, technician students, and volunteer in the Inpatient Pharmacy. Assess existing and new employee competencies and identify additional training and education needs.
• Identify education and training needs of the section and assist in staff development by presenting information at staff meetings and assist in the development of written standard operating procedures.
• Promote a learning organization culture by stimulating innovative and creative thinking in the workplace. Advocate continual learning for pharmacy employees to help improve performance and contributions in the health-care process.
• Maintain facility affiliate position with the University of Washington School of Pharmacy and serve as a preceptor for the pharmacy residents and Doctor of Pharmacy students.

Supervision:

• Assign pharmacists to work on wards and in Central Pharmacy based on staffing, workload, and performance agreements with other Service Lines. Assess workload shifts throughout the day, identify backlogs and make staffing adjustments as needed to meet organizational goals.
• Promote Equal Employment Opportunity principles and base employee decisions on individual qualifications and performance.
• Incorporate continuous quality improvement (CQI) philosophy into all areas of the Inpatient Pharmacy. Develop quality assurance criteria, monitor and evaluate quality of care provided by Inpatient Pharmacy Section and report results to appropriate Pharmacy Managers and Staff.
• Promote controlled substance accountability and security by making sure staff adhere to all controlled substance dispensing and narcotic policies and procedures. Keep appropriate Pharmacy Managers immediately informed of unresolved and/or suspicious discrepancies.

Research:

• Serve as back up to the lnvestigational Drug Coordinator when dealing with Inpatient Pharmacy studies and assist other staff pharmacists serving in this role.
• Encourage and assist with the development of pharmacy-based research that focuses on pharmaceutical care issues.
• Use quality improvement tools and techniques to make data-driven, patient-focused enhancements within the service involving front-line staff in the process.

Program Management:

• Develop and maintain procedures that assure re-packaging and bar-coding operations maintain consistently high quality. Provide surveillance to validate that quality control procedures are followed.
• Oversee day-to-day maintenance and operation of pharmacy equipment and automation, including IV and unit dose BCMA packaging equipment, automated medication cart-fill equipment, automated dispensing cabinets, and ScriptPro automation.
• Work with other pharmacy supervisors and staff to identify areas of rework or waste and develop solutions to streamline processes, save costs, and improve patient care.
• Assist the Pharmacy ADPAC and Pharmacy leadership with the developing emergency back-up plans for VistA, network, telephone, or automation downtime so that critical patient care functions are maintained.

Work Schedule: Mon - Fri, 7:00am to 3:30pm with occasional holidays and weekends.

Telework: Not available.

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Functional Statement #: 000000.

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized.

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized.

US Department of Veterans Affairs