Clinical Pharmacist

Description

Position Title:                   Clinical Pharmacist
Department:                      Pharmacy
Supervisor:                       Pharmacy Director
Status/Hours per week:   Non-exempt/35-40 hours

Primary Function:
The primary role of the Clinical Pharmacist is to provide direct care to patients with medication-based treatment regimens in support of primary care teams.  A secondary goal is to support population health-based best practices and meet standardized care outcome goals for our patients with chronic diseases. These include diabetes mellitus (both type 1 and type 2), hypertension, asthma, hyperlipidemia, and others. Additionally, the Clinical Pharmacist fulfills duties as a staff pharmacist in the health center pharmacy, dedicating approximately 50-60% of their time to this role.

Duties & Responsibilities:
•    Collaborate with the clinical and administrative staff to design, implement, monitor, evaluate, and modify pharmacotherapy guidelines and protocols for chronic diseases.
•    Effectively use available population health platforms (Arcadia, DRVS) for high-level data acquisition with advanced queries. Train end users and clinical staff on available tools and management options.
•    Facilitate the monitoring of clinical outcomes with regards to pharmacotherapy.
•    Identify patients appropriate for therapeutic modification using available population health tools, and collaborate with practitioners with regards to the recommendations.
•    Educate clinicians about care guidelines, protocols, best-practice, and expected outcomes with regards to appropriate medication selection.
•    Identify potential or actual adverse events resulting from drug therapy and recommend or initiate the necessary treatments.
•    Identify barriers to medication initiation and adherence by incorporating characteristics such as cultural, religious, and personal beliefs, socioeconomics, health literacy, and logistics. Work with designees to mitigate these barriers, improve access and/or modify therapies on both an individual and population-health basis. 
•    Continually review and analyze population and patient data related to clinical care and outcomes to evaluate performance, reveal trends, and identify opportunities.
•    Evaluate population health programs and initiatives. Work with designees to identify evaluation metrics and develop reporting dashboards.
•    Prepare various reports to present findings and to highlight successes and opportunities for improvement or intervention.
•    Format and display data in creative ways to effectively communicate findings to different audiences, including health care providers and organizational leadership.
•    Develop and implement programs for the organization to ensure complete and accurate data aggregation, measurement, and analysis for internal quality improvement as well as external reporting.
•    Work with designated clinical staff in developing and delivering educational modules for clinical staff members and students.
•    Maintain an up-to-date list of drug options from the state Medicaid (MassHealth) formulary in order to swiftly share this information, including therapeutic suggestions, with the clinical staff.
•    Develop and maintain strong partnerships with major stakeholders to ensure population health programs within the organization and address improvements in health and well-being of the community.
•    Participate on appropriate committees/working groups as assigned by supervisor and/or management.
•    Handle other tasks/responsibilities as assigned by supervisor and/or management.

Qualifications

Minimum Basic Knowledge:  

•    Doctorate of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree from a college of pharmacy accredited by the American Council of Pharmaceutical Education (ACPE).
•    A current, valid, unrestricted license to practice pharmacy in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
•    Current BLS (Basic Life Support for Healthcare Providers) Certification.

Experience & Qualifications:

•    Two years of clinical pharmacy experience with direct patient care.
•    Knowledge of chronic disease states and therapies including but not limited to primary care, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiology, pulmonology, diabetes, etc.
•    Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
•    Experience with EPIC/OCHIN EMR preferred.
•    Board Certification for Diabetes Care and Education.

Independent Action:    

Functions independently within scope of pharmacy practice and health center policies and procedures.

Supervisory Responsibility:
Supervisory responsibilities as determined when functioning as Staff Pharmacist.

Define Access Level to PHI:    Level 4 [Authorized to access full health information.  UCHC position and job responsibilities involve the provision of patient care and working as a clinical team member.  Staff in this category level, although allowed full access, should only access the necessary information for each respective treatment encounter/circumstance].