Clinical Pharmacist

Department Overview

The purpose of this position is to provide the services of a licensed pharmacist which includes the responsibility for the safe and proper distribution and use of medications in inpatients and outpatients who range in age from neonates, infants less than one year of age, children and adolescents ages 10-18, adults ages 19-65 and the elderly over age 65.

 

This position is to function at higher decision making and accountability levels regarding medication therapy, proactively affecting medication use by making recommendations at the time prescribing decisions are being made or, in some cases, making independent decisions about medication therapy in cooperation with other

healthcare team members. Additional services provided include facilitation of medication reconciliation, discharge counseling, and medication delivery through coordination of care from admission to discharge. The

pharmacist must possess strong communication skills for patient education and work collaboratively with

inpatient and outpatient interdisciplinary teams including but not limited to providers, nurses, case workers,

pharmacists, and technicians, as well as, the teaching and precepting component of students, interns and/or

residents.

 

This is a flexible model where the coordination during transitions of care and medication use system for patients are integrated with traditionally centralized functions, such as order entry/verifications and will continue to evolve as part of integrated decentralized patient care practice.

Function/Duties of Position

• Identifies, resolves and documents complex therapeutic problems, demonstrating advanced knowledge and application of this knowledge to a specific patient population.

• Interprets and evaluates physician's orders and prescriptions for accuracy, completeness and appropriateness. Verify the accuracy and appropriateness of medications prepared and dispensed from the central pharmacy. Supervise the activities and assume responsibility for all duties being performed by pharmacy technicians in your work areas.

• Monitors therapeutic response and adverse effects of medications to guide drug therapy. Consults with provider when questions or problems are identified. Appropriately reports all adverse drug reactions, drug defects, and medication errors.

• Responds accurately to requests for drug information from physicians, nurses, patients and patient's families; independently reviews and interprets the literature and applies this information to specific patient care situations.

• Monitors therapeutic response and adverse effects of medications to guide drug therapy. Consults with provider when questions or problems are identified. Appropriately reports all adverse drug reactions, drug defects, and medication errors.

• Directs the work of students/residents and monitors and evaluates their performance.

Required Qualifications

• A current Pharmacist’s license issued by the Oregon State Board of Pharmacy.
• BS in Pharmacy or Pharm.D. PLUS Practice Residency or Specialist Certification (BCPS, BCOPS, etc)
• Inpatient hospital pharmacy practice

Job Related Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (Competencies):

• Enforce pharmaceutical care principles safely and accurately
• Make age-related modification of drug therapy
• Make disease-related modification of drug therapy
• Evaluate medical literature Work independently without minimal direct supervision
• Handle multiple tasks and frequent interruptions Communicate effectively both formally and informally, including presentations
• Project manage Work with a team professionally and collaboratively
• Set priorities to respond quickly to emergent situations/requests
• Work cooperatively with health-system and pharmacy staff Communicate effectively and professionally (orally and in writing)
• Perform work accurately with attention to detail
• Exercise sound professional judgement
• Perform systematic problem solving Enforce practice guidelines, standards, and medication related policies
• Make critical decisions Perform key computer related skills including use of the EMR, common word processing, spreadsheet, medical literature and medication databases.

Preferred Qualifications

• PGY-2 Specialty Residency BLS/ACLS/PALS certification Vaccination certification
• Specialist Certifications (BCPS, BCOPS, etc.)

Additional Details

The pharmacist will experience competing demands from nurses, physicians, pharmacy staff and other healthcare professionals, as they attempt to influence clinical decision-making, clinical policies and practices and work flow. The pharmaci