Pharmacist Specialist-Critical Care – Sharp Memorial Hospital – Variable Shift – Full Time

Hours : Shift Start Time :

Shift Start Time : Variable

Variable

Shift End Time : Variable

Variable

AWS Hours Requirement :

8 / 40 - 8 Hour Shift

Additional Shift Information :

Weekend Requirements :

As Needed

On-Call Required :

Hourly Pay Range (Minimum - Midpoint - Maximum) :

$73.617 - $94.990 - $116.363

The stated pay scale reflects the range that Sharp reasonably expects to pay for this position. The actual pay rate and pay grade for this position will be dependent on a variety of factors, including an applicant’s years of experience, unique skills and abilities, education, alignment with similar internal candidates, marketplace factors, other requirements for the position, and employer business practices.

What You Will Do

This role will function as a point of contact for the Critical Care team and will be responsible for developing standard of care protocols and providing continuing education for our Pharmacy team.

Required Qualifications

• California Pharmacist License - CA State Board of Pharmacy -REQUIRED
• AHA Basic Life Support for Healthcare Professional (AHA BLS Healthcare) - American Heart Association -REQUIRED
• ACLS Certification (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) - American Heart Association -REQUIRED

Preferred Qualifications

• Completed a Pharmacy Practice Residency with experience in critical care or a specialized clinical residency in critical care / emergency care.
• Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) - American Heart Association -PREFERRED
• BPS Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS) - Board of Pharmacy Specialties -PREFERRED

Other Qualification Requirements

Current license to practice pharmacy in the state of California without restriction or probation.

Essential Functions

Clinical advisory services

Demonstrates pro-active involvement with advisory service activities and displays follow-through and contribution to advisory service outcomes as evidenced by (including but not limited to) : (e.

g. Renal Target Monitoring, Antibiotic Surveillance Team, Medication Usage Evaluations and other programs or initiatives specific to the entity).

Qualitative participation in clinical intervention program through consistent issue identification, provision of reliable best practice / literature based recommendations, follow-through with prescribing and other clinicians.

Quantitative work, measured by the completion and submission of electronic forms consistent with the average established for each pharmacy department / shift.

Consistently responds to and documents drug information requests promptly and professionally.

Participates in ongoing data collection for MUE.

Demonstrates knowledge and competency of chemotherapy dosing, monitoring, and established guidelines.

Reviews patient medication profiles for appropriateness of drug therapy, therapeutic duplications, allergies, weight, height, minimum and maximum dosing guidelines, age specific requirements, renal and hepatic function, drug interactions and other pertinent factors to individualize patients' medication dosing requirements within boundaries approved by P&T / T&S committees.

Identifies, resolves and documents prescribing, formulary and therapeutic issues through integration of patient variables, clinical status, drug knowledge, and professional judgment.

Communicates with nurses and physicians in a timely manner about therapeutic issues or problems.

Follows up on formulary compliance issues and / or communicates issues to management.

Participates in Code-Blue emergencies as required, mixes and labels medications as needed, and provides information; Assures that pharmacy code-blue billing is completed where appropriate and restocks medications.

Consistently participating in financial pillar / cost savings measures (e.g. IV to PO conversions, formulary adherence, etc.).

Clinical consult services

Certification / Recertification, Participation, Knowledge : Demonstrates competency in performing formal clinical consults, and patient monitoring practices as approved by the P&T (T&S) Committee(s).

Has met minimum certification / recertification requirements as outlined in the Pharmacy Certification Process For Formal pharmacotherapy Consult and Advisory Services policy and procedure for consult services offered at entity.

Participates in Clinical Consult Services for example, Pharmacokinetics, Nutrition Support, Ortho Coumadin, Pain Management, and other services specific to the entity.

Demonstrates knowledge of consult services as evidenced by attainment of consult service goals and proper documentation of actions, recommendations, and patient outcomes on the pharmacy monitoring forms.

Performs by leaving concise, objective, legible, and professional notes in the patient's clinical chart.

Consistently demonstrates ability to complete formal clinical workload assigned during shift as evidenced by completing all consults and advisory services in a timely manner.

Medication administration

Provide comprehensive pharmaceutical care to the medical and surgical ICUs :

Participate in daily patient care activities such as prospectively evaluating all medication orders for accuracy and appropriateness.

Discuss medication order clarifications with the prescriber and inform others of medication order changes.

Monitor critical care drug therapy to evaluate appropriateness of use, dose, dosage form, regimen, route, therapeutic duplication, and drug interactions (vasopressors, antihypertensive drips, sedation drips).

Provide pharmacokinetic consultations and other dosing as required.

Participate in the drug therapy management of medical emergencies (e.g. cardiac arrest and other code blue situations, stroke, etc.).

Work corroboratively with other clinicians and health-care providers to implement and maintain innovative disease management programs and clinical pharmacy services.

Participate in the development of medication use management programs within Sharp Healthcare including clinical guidelines, critical pathways, disease management, and drug use programs.

Participate in patient care rounds when applicable.

Provide drug information to physicians and other members of the ICU team.

Provide operational support in the Medical and Surgical ICUs and Central or Satellite Pharmacist as determined by departmental need :

Resolves drug distribution related issues.

Resolves Pyxis related issues.

Expedite antibiotic administration by all appropriate mechanisms.

Facilitate proper information transfer with regard to medication use for patients transferred from the ICUs to a lower level of care.

Promote the use of the formulary by converting non-formulary orders to formulary when possible, but coordinates procurement of non-formulary drugs when necessary.

Promote and demonstrate rational, cost-effective drug therapy :

Focus on cost avoidance and cost savings due to medication use in the ICU.

Monitor the use of expensive medications to assure there is use consistent with approved criteria (e.g., alteplase, snake antivenin, eptifibatide, etc.).

Anticipate changes in drug therapy and report the potential impact it will represent to the overall hospital and drug budget.

Medication Reconciliation / Patient Education :

Reconcile patient home medications, pharmacy and nursing medication records as necessary.

Facilitate discharge / admission / transfer for ICU patients.

Provide patient specific medication use teaching for discharge medications when appropriate.

Multidisciplinary communication

Operational Services (dealing with internal customers) :

Clearly communicates goals and instructions to other staff members, including handoffs between shifts (written / oral).

Participates in staff orientation and resident / student training programs.

Effectively intercepts and troubleshoots problems, as demonstrated by effective problem solving, prioritization of issues with respect to level of significance and impact to patient care, safety, workflow, and communication.

When faced with complex situations, has knowledge of and applies the appropriate policies and procedures.

Effectively evaluates ongoing workflow issues as and directs daily workload to achieve efficiency and maximize resource utilization as business needs require.

Attends and participates in staff meetings or reviews staff meeting communications.

Reads work related email at a minimum on assigned workdays.

Customer Service Interdepartmental Relations (Dealing with external Customers) :

Answers phone in timely, friendly manner, stating department, name, and title.

Fosters positive relationships through consistent, respectful, professional interactions with customers.

Responds to requests in timely, caring manner that is consistent with Sharp behavior standards, (i.e. attitude).

Pharmacy operations and distribution

Assures smooth operation of the pharmacy on a daily basis by providing daily work direction and supervision of technical and ancillary staff; oversight over personnel.

Medication Distribution :

Medications are prepared and dispensed accurately and in a timely manner in accordance with recognized standards of practice, legal and regulatory requirements, and hospital pharmacy policies and procedures.

Dispenses investigational medication according to policies and procedures.

Enters data correctly into computerized patient medication profile and verifies that all technician orders are correctly entered into computer.

Demonstrates proficiency with and utilization of automation and advances in technology (Carecast, Clinicomp, Pyxis Profile, Rx Check, Automix, repackaging robotics, physician order entry, etc.).

Demonstrates knowledge of age specific medication delivery systems (e.g. NICU admixtures, NICU and pediatric oral syringes, adult TPN / TNA solutions, final admixture concentration etc.).

Demonstrates knowledge and competency of IV Admixture / Aseptic Technique including the standards of USP.

Demonstrates knowledge and competency of chemotherapy preparation.

Participates in cost management initiatives including : i.) Managing appropriate Inventory levels to decrease staleness;

wastage and keep Inventories low; reduce waste; ii.) attempts to reduce expired muds and use short dated items before they expire, etc.

and iii) Borrow loan paperwork complete.

Regulatory

Compliance to relevant regulatory agency requirements (i.e. state board of pharmacy, CMS, The JC, DHS, FDA, DEA) as demonstrated by :

Completes monthly assigned nursing unit / drug storage area inspections on time. Completes paperwork including inspection log, documents discrepancies, and makes recommendations for improvement.

Brings critical issues to the attention of management.

Participates in attaining compliance with the National Patient Safety Goals as demonstrated by saving and forwarding orders / examples to management or designee (i.

e. of no VO / TO completed, no prohibited abbreviations, use of "resume all meds", etc.).

Participates & assists in the collection of mad tracer audits or collection of individual elements from the tracer tool.

Ensures security of medication storage and compliance with Medication Management (MM) standards (i.e. all meds are labeled, patient own meds are checked, bedside medications have associated physician orders, no expired mods, and the physical security of medications is maintained).

Research and teaching responsibilities

Take a leadership role in clinical research and the teaching programs of the Department of Pharmacy Services as they are related to critical care medicine.

Participates in providing didactic and experiential training in Clinical Pharmacy for clinical pharmacy residents.

Assist in the development, implementation, and evaluation of residency programs in the areas of Pharmaceutical Care and Clinical Pharmacology.

Actively participates in clinical research projects resulting in presentations and / or publications.

Provide staff development support to nurses and physicians.

Provide presentations, publications, and other informative activities on critical care medicine and other drug-related topics to the health care community and general public.

Maintains awareness of contemporary trends in the profession through the professional literature and regular attendance at professional organization meetings, institutes and seminars.

Safe medication practice

Demonstrates probative participation in medication safety initiatives as demonstrated by :

Knowledge of and active participation in concurrent medication safety event (MSE) monitoring programs, as demonstrated by interventions and eQVR submissions.

Qualitative work demonstrates thoughtful and thorough identification, evaluation and analysis of medication safety events.

Performs initial analysis of MSE'S and assists in the research and identification causative factors of events.

Performs non-voluntary monitoring (i.e. trigger reports, harm monitors, alerting orders).

Quality Improvement Initiatives :

Guiding the development of evidence-based treatment protocols, algorithms, and / or clinical pathways that are congruent with nationally accepted practice guidelines and quality indicators (Core measures).

Assisting in the development, implementation, and assessment of various technologies used throughout the critical care medication-use process (Cerner).

Maintaining compliance with standards of national accrediting bodies such as the Joint Commission and CDPH.

Assisting in surveillance and reporting of adverse drug reactions.

Participate on hospital committees :

Participate actively in critical care team meetings and conferences.

Participating in ICU-based and hospital-wide committees (e.g., P&T, infection control, disaster) that impact medication use in the medical and surgical ICUs.

Sharp HealthCare is an equal opportunity / affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, status as a protected veteran, among other things, or status as a qualified individual with disability or any other protected class.