Pharmacist-Discharge/Transitions of Care – Sharp Coronado Hospital – Variable Shift - Full Time

Hours:

Shift Start Time:

Shift End Time:

AWS Hours Requirement:

Additional Shift Information:

Weekend Requirements:

On-Call Required:

Hourly Pay Range (Minimum - Midpoint - Maximum):

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
The Discharge/Transitions of Care (TOC) pharmacist applies clinical expertise in evidence-based practice within the case management and care transitions specialty area and functions in the following roles: coach, clinical expert, educator, researcher, and consultant. Leadership skills (system thinker and change agent) are role assumptions. Position will participate in a discharge/TOC program, which will include overall discharge medication coordination, establishing a patient referral process, education for patients/families on discharge medication regimens, monitoring of clinical information, collaborating on establishing/changing care plans as appropriate to scope of practice, making recommendations to MDs on clinical interventions and overall data collection/reporting for program. Other responsibilities will include maintenance of discharge/TOC program to transition patients out of the acute care transitions phase and return to self-care, coordinating education programs for patients in services, integrating documentation/outcomes into patient's Sharp HealthCare medical record, coordination of resources or making referrals for patients to include physician office visits, financial assistance, social services, etc. and data collection and evaluation of program's effectiveness.

The Discharge/TOC Pharmacist at Sharp HealthCare serves to improve care transitions for patients discharging from hospital to home. The Discharge/TOC pharmacist identifies patients who have discharge orders for medications that are historically challenging for patients to access in the outpatient settings (high cost, required prior authorization, no insurance or under insured etc.) and address any associated access issues prior to discharge. For selected high-risk patients, the Discharge/TOC pharmacist also provides full discharge medication review and counseling. The position will manage populations of patients who met high-risk criteria in order to improve disease state outcomes and improve medication related safety. Ensures safe, effective, and cost-efficient medication therapy is implemented for all patients in their care and monitor care appropriately. The Discharge/TOC pharmacist functions as an essential member of the patient care team as they collaborate closely with hospitalists, specialists, nursing, case management, social work, inpatient and outpatient pharmacies, and outpatient assistance program to optimize patient care. Benefits to the local community include improved medication access, readmission rate reduction, decreased medication errors, and improved patient safety. Provides continuity of care, transition of care, and discharge services as appropriate.

In conjunction with the Pharmacy Leadership Team, oversees the discharge/TOC program at the site including students and residents' training for the Discharge/TOC rotation; ensuring appropriate screening and interventions on patients, documentation of transitional care activities by all staff and training of new staff in transition of care. Serves as the Pharmacy Department liaison with the identified medical division and committees for their area of specialty. Serves on committees directed by the Director/Manager of Pharmacy. Other responsibilities will include development of discharge program including data collection and evaluation of program's effectiveness.


Required Qualifications

• Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD)
• 3 Years experience in a hospital pharmacy practice;Or
• 1 Year completion of PGY-1 Pharmacy Residency.
• California Pharmacist License - CA State Board of Pharmacy -REQUIRED
• AHA Basic Life Support for Healthcare Professional (AHA BLS Healthcare) - American Heart Association -REQUIRED

Preferred Qualifications

• 2 Years completion of PGY-2 Pharmacy Residency.
• BPS Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS) - Board of Pharmacy Specialties -PREFERRED
• BPS Board Certified Ambulatory Care Pharmacist (BCACP) - Board of Pharmacy Specialties -PREFERRED
• Discharge/Transitions of Care experience

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. 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.
  Consistently responds to and documents drug information requests promptly and professionally.
  Participates in ongoing data collection for MUE as applicable.
  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 PT /TS 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.
  Consistently participating in financial pillar/cost savings measures.
• 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).
• 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).
  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 medication requests in timely, caring manner that is consistent with Sharp behavior standards, (i.e. attitude).
• Transitions of Care (TOC)
  Serves as a resource to inpatient and outpatient care teams across the continuum of care.
  Tracks clinical activities and data as deemed appropriate by Director/Manager of Pharmacy.
  Participates in development of guidelines, protocols and/or policies as directed.
  Identifies metrics and oversees the performance of the transition care program at site in coordination with Pharmacy Leadership Team.
  Accepts and acts on referrals (also known as consults) from multidisciplinary team members (i.e. diabetic team, cardiac team, pulmonary team, case managers, pharmacists, post discharge phone call nurse, care transitions coaches, and physicians etc.) for Discharge/TOC pharmacy services.
  Supports various department in their efforts to reduce CMS composite readmissions from home (i.e. CTI team, COPD, Post Discharge and Stroke Phone Call Program, Diabetes team, Chronic Care Task Force, Care Coordination Collaborative Meeting, case management.
  Performs drug therapy management duties as a clinical pharmacist as directed.
  Performs applicable clinical pharmacy consults on identified patients as directed.
  Performs order entry and pharmaceutical care management as directed.
  Demonstrates proficiency with and utilization of automation and advances in technology (i.e. physician order entry, discharge reconciliation windows, ePrescribe, etc.).
  Counsels patients on medication use consistent with professional standards and OBRA-90 regulations when applicable.
  Manages Discharge/TOC report based on changes in the clinical practices and drug formulary changes (i.e. works with IT team to upgrade Discharge/TOC report).
  Addresses medication acquisition issues to minimize risk of medication related readmission due to lack of access to expensive/high risk medications (i.e. NOACs, insulins etc.) through collaborations with other healthcare providers (i.e. PAP coordinator, prescribers, and outpatient pharmacies etc.).
  Maintains training folder for Discharge/TOC RPH position.
  Trains new staff for Discharge/TOC shift coverage whenever assigned.
  Maintains prescribers’ support for the expedited authorization process for medications by pharmacy team.
• Discharge Medication Program Coordination
  Implements and supports the launch of Discharge Medication Program to improve patient care, address medication acquisition for patients and increase prescription volumes for outpatient pharmacy (i.e. Organizes discharge medication meetings and maintains meeting minutes).
  Collaborates with floor managers, educators, lead pharmacist and pharmacy team to maintain the growth of Discharge Medication Program.
  Maintains training folder for pharmacy technicians, pharmacists, and training materials for nursing staff.
  Functions as a point of contact between the nursing department, physicians, and outpatient pharmacy to identify and resolve medication acquisition issues.
  Provides training to new outpatient pharmacy staff as applicable on Discharge Medication Program utilizing EMR tools that are applicable to their outpatient practices.
  Gathers, analyzes and reports out data for Discharge Medication Program to Pharmacy and Nursing Leaderships.
• Education for Discharge/TOC
  Maintains professional competency and skills appropriate to practice setting and scope of service through participation in continuing education programs and documents continuing education completed.
  Pursues experience opportunities to improve practice skills including required competency training for practice setting.
  Develops and maintains competency material for related specialty management (i.e. TOC competency checklist for new hire orientation).
  Provides in-service education to physicians, nursing, and pharmacy staff.
  Works with site and system educator in area of specialty to develop and provide education around discharge process for medications for both site and system.
  Participates in the ongoing development of the program for preceptorship of pharmacy students and residents in both an experiential and didactic setting relating to area of specialty.
  Supports the growth of pharmacy students/residents.
  Maintains a PGY1 pharmacy resident and/or student rotation in area of specialty.
  Trains and utilizes 1 to 2 new TOC student(s) every 6 weeks for discharge medication counseling and medication acquisition services.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Computer skills are highly desirable, especially in the application of word processing.
• Pharmaceutical knowledge and skills.
• Ability to learn computer and application skills as applicable to role.
• Ability to make judgments in demanding situations.
• Ability to manage and oversee projects involving multiple resources, from start to finish.

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.

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Salary : $119