Department: Inpatient Pharmacy

Location: Trinity Health Ann Arbor

About the Department

The inpatient pharmacy at Trinity Health Ann Arbor is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, servicing inpatients, the emergency department, operating rooms and multiple procedural areas.

Clean room operations are accredited by Joint Commission for adherence to the highest standards of USP 797 and 800.  Trinity Health Ann Arbor is also the lead location for the national Trinity Health Pharmacy Education and Advancement of Technicians (THE-PEAT) training program to educate pharmacy students to become PTCB, licensed Pharmacy Technicians.

Position Purpose

Under the direction of the Clinical Pharmacy Manager, assumes specific responsibilities in areas of Clinical Pharmacy. Is prospectively involved with provision of pharmaceutical care and the promotion of high quality, cost-effective, patient-focused care considering age-specific needs. Demonstrates pharmacotherapy expertise, participates in interdisciplinary education programs, and participates in problem recognition and resolution related to medication usage. Develops, coordinates, assesses and evaluates medication safety programs and initiatives to ensure safe and appropriate medication use processes.  Utilizes principles of just culture.  Responsible for regulatory requirements applicable to medication safety in area of practice.  Participates in pharmacist and technician clinical development programs, and actively participates in continuous quality improvement initiatives. Performs all pharmacist functions on a regularly assigned basis.

Status available: Full-time

Education:

• Requires Doctor of Pharmacy Degree (i.e., Pharm.D) or clinical oriented Master's Degree in hospital pharmacy from an accredited College of Pharmacy or equivalent is required.

Experience:

• Experience: Minimum of two years related experience, which may include a clinically oriented hospital pharmacy residency (i.e., PGY2).

Licensure / Certification:

• Current State of Michigan Pharmacist and controlled substance license or eligibility for licensure. Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist in area of practice if applicable is preferred.  Current Basic Life Support (BLS) certification.

Required Skills and Abilities

• Possesses strong interpersonal skills necessary to effectively communicate drug therapy information to all health team members, patients and administrators/managers.
• Has a demonstrated working knowledge of pharmacokinetics (mathematic modeling of a drug's absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion in a patient).
• Has a demonstrated teaching ability to instruct and precept pharmacists, pharmacy residents and pharmacy students in the area of pharmacy practice specialty.
• Has demonstrated research and publishing skills.
• Has excellent customer service orientation skills necessary to deal effectively with various levels of hospital personnel. 
• Maintenance of thirty continuing education credits every two years as required by Michigan Board of Pharmacy. 

What you will do:

Perform pharmacist functions on a rotating basis. Provides pharmaceutical care for neonatal through geriatric populations according to professional standards and statutory requirements. Provides direct patient care through patient care rounding, medication order review, medication therapy  monitoring and consults with other healthcare providers to ensure the most effective use of medications. Provides medication procurement and dose preparation based on need and urgency with which medication is needed to meet the needs of patients and to comply with hospital clinical quality core measures.

Collaborates with the medical and nursing staffs to identify patients who require intensive pharmacy intervention (medication histories, drug therapy recommendations, patient education) and facilitates the communication of pharmaceutical care plans to other healthcare providers. Actively and reliably monitors drug therapy and answers drug therapy related questions. Works with medical and nursing staff to optimize drug therapy delivery, provides drug therapy in-service education, problem solves, and assists nurses in communicating with the medical staff. Develops and monitors guidelines or drug use protocols specific to area of specialty. Participates in monitoring and ensuring medication safety through proactive and continuous monitoring of medication practices. Identifies high risk medications or patients for monitoring for potential errors. Contributes to improving medication safety through root cause analysis and identification of potential solutions and policy/guideline development in conjunction with the other health care providers. Participates in evaluating medications for formulary considerations with a pharmacoeconomic analysis and prescribing guidelines in conjunction with the medical staff. Conducts MUEs as necessary and recommends cost effective drug use.

 Leads/promotes continuous quality improvement programs to meet Organizational and Pharmacy Department goals. Monitors procedures and processes to identify areas in need of improvement. Prepares reports, educates and makes suggestions and recommendations for improvement to the appropriate leader or responsible Committee. Educates physicians, associates and other allied disciplines about the goals and rationale of the institution’s quality of care and cost containment programs related to medication usage and to pharmacotherapy and pharmaceutical care.