Quality & Medication Safety Pharmacy Manager

What Health System Pharmacy contributes to Cardinal Health
Pharmacy Operations is responsible for the safe, efficient and effective coordination of Cardinal Health's pharmacy operations that service acute care hospitals, hospital retail customers, ambulatory care and alternate site facilities, oncology and cardiology practices as well as retail customers.

Health System Pharmacy is responsible for providing customized pharmacy program solutions that reduce costs and improve patient care quality for hospitals, health systems and other integrated healthcare providers may also consult with and advise healthcare team on prescribed medications, supplies and related processes.

Job Summary

Reporting to the Health System Director of Pharmacy, the Quality & Medication Safety Manager is responsible for planning, organizing, and directing the design, implementation, maintenance, and evaluation of safe medication systems and quality assurance programs throughout the MSOPS organization. Working closely with the pharmacy management team, the Quality & Medication Safety Manager assumes a leadership role in formulating policy and instituting practice models that promote medication safety and pharmaceutical care in all aspects of the medication management process. The Quality & Medication Safety Manager is viewed as the organizational leader and champion for all medication safety and quality initiatives and works independently to investigate, implement, and monitor medication safety and quality initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Serves as the authoritative resource on medication safety and quality; assists the pharmacy management team with all aspects of medication management and clinical services, distributive functions, and ensures compliance with all regulatory and accrediting body requirements (TJC, MA BORP, DPH, FDA, etc.). 

• Serves as the designated person for USP 797 and USP 800; collaborates with pharmacy leadership and site clinical leads to ensure standardization of and compliance with USP 797 and USP 800 initiatives. 

• Coordinates the development of criteria for safe and effective medication use as well as monitors the compliance with established criteria and other quality improvement programs as defined by MSOPS. 

• Conceptualizes, designs, demonstrates, and documents in formulating policy and instituting practice models that promote medication safety in all aspects of the medication management process. 

• Serves as the medication safety expert and participates in Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P&T) Committees. Participates in, or leads, multidisciplinary teams concerned with medication errors, adverse drug events and reactions, near misses, policy review, safe medication use, new product review, and patient safety to identify risk points and prioritize system improvements to reduce the potential for medication errors and patient harm. 

• Develops, evaluates, reports, and otherwise participates in Continuous Quality Improvement, Drug Utilization Evaluation, Adverse Drug Reaction reporting, Medication Use, and other projects as assigned.  

• Independently investigates medication safety events or issues, including specific error reports. Utilizes data driven performance-improvement methodologies and tools to identify and develop recommendations for action. Proactively analyzes current practices that contribute to medication errors and identifies steps for prevention. Facilitates and implements process and system changes to reduce the likelihood of occurrence and recurrence of error. 

• Collects, reviews and analyzes established departmental and system-wide Medication Quality and Safety programs including medication-use, medication error, adverse drug reactions, and continuous quality improvement data. Identify needed improvement; develop and lead implementation of high-leverage error-reduction strategies. 

• Constructs and directs root cause analyses. Evaluates systems and process change recommendations to determine where medication management risks exist and opportunities for improvement are needed.