Pharmacy Technician Specialist

GENERAL SUMMARY:
Under the direction of the Department Director or Manager, coordinates and facilitates operations in key department areas such as automation and information services, pharmaceutical waste management, regulatory readiness, purchasing and inventory control, controlled substances diversion monitoring, and other duties and responsibilities as assigned. Approximately 65% of responsibilities are related to automation and associated activities. Works closely with pharmacy, nursing, and other multidisciplinary teams within each business unit.

PRINCIPLE DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Provides all services and functions provided by Pharmacy Technicians as necessary and assigned.
2. Act as a full-participants project teams, interacting with other departmental representatives to assure operational objectives are met.
3. Serves as a liaison to Nursing Management to monitor and communicate medication discrepancies with aid to resolution.
4. Communicates and provides usage reports to Nursing Management regarding controlled drug dispensing trends of staff nurses to monitor for diversion. Coordinates interdisciplinary meetings at the direction of the pharmacy manager or
director to review findings as necessary.
5. Serve as the primary resource for the application-specific creation of user IDs and passwords specific to the automated dispensing systems and software applications. Maintains User IDs in user database/server. Works closely with Nursing Education to add new nursing orientees to database and with Human Resources for removing IDs of those listed as Terminated.
6. Serve as the initial and primary contact for issues specific to the departmental IS, relating to Automated Dispensing Systems, for business unit staff and other professional end users of department specific software, for I.S. and for the vendor.
7. Maintains drug database with additions and deletions of medications and or types of medications within automated dispensing systems.
8. Coordinates and monitors medication restocking processes for automated dispensing devices including provisions for monitoring expirations dates and retrieval of outdated medications.
9. Monitors Secure C2 Safe and resolves narcotic accounting discrepancies and communicates any discrepancies to the Director or Manger of Pharmacy Services.
10.Monitors, investigate and follows-up on all chain of custody concerns regarding the handling and documentation of Controlled Substances
11.Works with department leadership to design and implement process changes in assigned focus areas.
12.Serve as the primary staff resource for the determination of and production of training materials both for formal and informal training. Serves as primary trainer for new staff in assigned focus areas.
13.Serves as an assistant to and back-up for departmental commodities specialists/buyers.
14.Works with manager and/or supervisor to write staff schedules as assigned
15.Other duties as assigned by department leadership.

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

•Requires high school diploma or G.E.D. equivalent.

•Requires at least two (2) years of experience as an inpatient pharmacy technician(for inpatient setting) OR two (2) years of experience as a pharmacy technician for all others.

•Two (2) years of experience with automated pharmacy dispensing systems preferred.

•PC skills as needed to perform job functions as assigned.

•Strong verbal/written skills; availability for on-call system support; highly analytical ability to solve complex technical problems.

•Ability to work designated shifts, including weekends and holidays.

•Ability to function in a fast-paced environment with established time constraints.

•Flexibility to deal with ever-changing health care environment.

•Ability to effectively manage multiple projects.

CERTIFICATIONS/LICENSURES REQUIRED:
Valid State of MI pharmacy technician licensure required.

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