Lead, Pharmacist

Title: Lead Pharmacist

Location: Long Beach

Department: Inpatient Satellite Pharmacy

Status: Full Time

Shift: Day

Pay Range*: $79.74/hr - $115.62/hr

At MemorialCare Health System, we believe in providing extraordinary healthcare to our communities and an exceptional working environment for our employees. Memorial Care stands for excellence in Healthcare. Across our family of medical centers, we support each one of our bright, talented employees in reaching the highest levels of professional development, contribution, collaboration and accountability. Whatever your role and whatever expertise you bring, we are dedicated to helping you achieve your full potential in an environment of respect, innovation and teamwork.

Position Summary

The Lead Pharmacist is responsible for improving therapeutic outcomes for our patients through safe, rational and cost-effective pharmaceutical care, education and research. The Lead Pharmacist maintains competency in drug therapy and disease-state management in order to provide this care and improve patient care outcomes. The Lead Pharmacist provides drug information to physicians, nurses and other health care workers to improve the quality of medication prescribing and administration. The Lead Pharmacist assists with medication reconciliation and patient counseling, identifies potential medication safety issues and works actively to prevent medication errors. The Lead Pharmacist educates patients and families to improve compliance with drug therapy as required. The Lead Pharmacist directs the work of ancillary personnel as necessary. The Lead Pharmacist also contributes to the future of the profession and the pharmacy services within the hospital by teaching pharmacy students and post graduate pharmacy residents.

In addition to all of the regular pharmacist duties the Lead Pharmacist is responsible for the daily activities of the pharmacy areas that (s)he supervises, including, but not limited to schedules, collection of statistics, serving as primary liaison to other departments, miscellaneous problem solving, and representation of the area at management meetings. The Lead Pharmacist supports operations remotely when needed to address planned or unplanned interruptions in service when on call. Lead Pharmacist also develops and implements performance improvement plans in his/her area.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities of the Job

Committee Support: Actively represents the department on multi-disciplinary committees, care lines, and value streams. Provides feedback to pharmacy management team and promotes pharmacy initiatives and policies at these committees.

Communication: Demostrates ability to communicate patient-specific drug therapy recommendations to health care professionals including writing clear, concise, accurate, and appropriate chart notes. Stays current on drug therapy trends and communicates important changes and new information to other health care professionals.

Documentation: Document workload/clinical interventions per department standards. Floorstock inspections are completed on time.

Drug Information: Demonstrates competency in general drug knowledge, disease state management, design of drug therapy regimens, and pharmacokinetic principles. Demonstrates the ability to conduct a thorough medication history and to enter it correctly into the medical record.

Drug Therapy Management: Actively coordinates and participates in target drug/antibiotic monitoring. Demonstrates competency in drug therapy guidelines for service area.

Financial Management: Actively contributes to achieving or exceeding drug inventory targets. One or more significant performance improvement, patient care outcomes or cost reduction projects are completed during the year. Promotes cost effective pharmaceutical care through recommendations for therapeutic and automatic substitutions and formulary management.

Guideline Development, Management and Support: Coordinates or supports the development of new drug therapy guidelines and the updating of existing guidelines. Audits guidelines as necessary.

Leadership: Leads team in the development and implementation of new workflows. Promotes Lean principles, daily management, and continuous improvement. Assures compliance with all applicable local, state, and federal regulations.

Personnel Management: Knowledgeable in activities of ancillary personnel and directs them to optimize productivity.

Teaching, Training, and Competency Assessment: Actively participates in patient, student, resident, pharmacist, nursing and/or physician education and teaching. Orients, trains and certifies new staff on drug therapy guidelines and trains and certifies existing staff as necessary on new or updated therapy.

* Placement in the pay range is based on multiple factors including, but not limited to, relevant years of experience and qualifications. In addition to base pay, there may be additional compensation available for this role, including but not limited to, shift differentials, extra shift incentives, and bonus opportunities. Health and wellness is our passion at MemorialCare-that includes taking good care of employees and their dependents. We offer high quality health insurance plan options, so you can select the best choice for your family. And there's more...Check out our MemorialCare Benefits for more information about our Benefits and Rewards.

Minimum Requirements

Qualifications/Work Experience:

Minimum of 2 years experience in an inpatient hospital pharmacy with clinical exposure or a pharmacy practice residency with equivalent experience preferred.

Outstanding organizational and communication skills.

Ability to exercise independent judgment and prioritize a diverse workload.

Proficient understanding of common computer programs used in pharmacy practice and ability to type at least 30 words per minute preferred.

Working knowledge of pharmacokinetic principles preferred.

Qualified in Pharmacy Services Guidelines for assigned service area preferred.

Education/Licensure/Certification:

Graduate of school of pharmacy with a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree required.

Current licensure as a pharmacist in the State of California required.

Current American Heart Association Basic Cardiac Life Support (BCLS) certificate required.

Completion of an ASHP-accredited pharmacy residency preferred.