Pharmacists staff

Wolfgang AP, Wolfgang CF. 1992. Hospital pharmacy directors perceptions of job stress in stafF pharmacists. Am JHosp Pharm 49 1955. 

Scot Phinney has just accepted a position as pharmacy director for a 200-bed community hospital in a fast-growing suburb of a southern city. Scot has a doctor of pharmacy degree and 3 years of work experience as staff pharmacist at another hospital across town. Scot s responsibility... 

Understanding the financial impact of a third-party contract clearly is important when making a decision about whether to accept or decline a third-party contract, but other factors also have a role in the decision. One factor that needs to be considered is the effect of the decision on pharmacy customers. If the decision is made to reject the contract, customers who have that third party may be forced to go elsewhere to obtain their prescriptions. This may mean angering, distressing, or inconveniencing some pharmacy customers. Many customers may not understand the pharmacy s decision and subsequently direct their anger toward the pharmacy staff. Pharmacists employed by the pharmacy also may be distressed by losing customers with whom they have established relationships. 

Assume that a fourth-year pharmacy student has two job offers on graduation. One is to work as a staff pharmacist at a chain pharmacy for 100,000 per year. The other is a 1-year residency in a hospital for 40,000. Without considering the impact of taxes and qualitative factors, what is the 1-year financial opportunity cost of taking the residency over the chain offer ... 

At a recent continuing-education seminar, Dr. Hamilton and her staff pharmacists learned of the potential for a significant interaction between the two medications in question. She was puzzled as to why one of the pharmacists would have told a physician that there are no drug interaction problems with the new drug. Dr. Hamilton and the staff pharmacists are aware that the hospital information technology department has not yet updated the pharmacy department computer system to include this interaction. As she concludes her conversation with Dr. Brown, she promises to find out what happened and take corrective action. 

In Dr. Hamilton s investigation, she discovers that technician Robert Allen in fact took the phone call and answered Dr. Brown s question. Dr. Hamilton calls a meeting of the pharmacists to discuss how to prevent such problems from occurring in the future. During the meeting, she discovers that a few of the staff pharmacists have, on occasion, observed Robert stepping outside his technician role because he was trying to be helpful. They tell her that they have attempted to correct his behavior but have had little success. This is the first time Dr. Hamilton has heard of the problem. 

Civil liability (tort law) Stuart Johnson, R.Ph., is manager of Johnson s Apothecary, a community pharmacy. When he arrived at the pharmacy today, there was a frantic voice-mail message left for him in the middle of the night while the pharmacy was closed. It seems that a staff pharmacist, Dave, made a dispensing error yesterday, and Suzie Jones, a 3-year-old child, was taken unconscious by ambulance to the local community hospital emergency room at 2 00 a.m. Suzie and her family had just moved to town about 2 weeks ago, and yesterday was their first visit to Johnson s Apothecary. 

Describe budgetary issues confronting a hospitals pharmacy department. Identify strategies undertaken by the departments director and staff pharmacists to reduce operating costs without compromising patient care. 

Edwin is a staff pharmacist working for Jo-Lynne at Dirt Cheap Pharmacy. Edwin is in charge of returning outdated medicahons to the warehouse for credit. The outdated drugs can be returned only within 2 months of their expiration or Jo-Lynne receives a drashc decrease in credit. Lately, Jo-Lynne nohces that the drugs are not being pulled off the shelves in a hmely fashion. When she asks Edwin why he is not performing his job, he answers, It ruins the workflow. ... 

Garrelts, J.C. Smith, D.F. Clinical services provided by staff pharmacists in a community hospital. Am. J. Hosp. Pharm. 1990, 47, 2011-2015. 

Jones, R.A. Lopez, L.M. Beall, D.G. Cost-effective implementation of clinical pharmacy services in an ambulatory care clinic. Ho.sp. Pharm. 1991, 26, 778-782. Chrymko, M.M. Meyer, J.D. Kelly, W.N. Target drug monitoring Cost-effective service provided by staff pharmacists. Hosp. Pharm. 1994, 29, 347, 350 -352. 

Career ladders and growth within a health system can be viewed as longitudinal and/or lateral. Longitudinal would be from staff pharmacist to director of pharmacy services. Lateral would be clinical pharmacist from acute to home care. 

The staff pharmacist may or may not have an advanced degree (i.e.. Doctor of Pharmacy degree). Although a PharmD degree is not required, it does ensure that the pharmacist has a good, sound clinical education. More important is the person s ability to think quickly when asked difficult questions or when in difficult situations to interact professionally with a wide range of individuals (both clinical and nonclinical) and to be able to work with little supervision in an often unstructured environment. 

From an operational perspective, pharmacists who have a business background can progress from a staff-level position to branch, regional, or corporate management positions. It is not unusual for a mid- to high-level manager to have started out as a staff pharmacist. 

Training for prevention and treatment specialists, but increasingly also for non-specialists in contact with drug problems — primary-health staff, pharmacists, teachers, youth workers, the police, prison staff and voluntary workers — has been intensified in many countries. 

Nesbit TW, Shermock KM, Bobek MB, et al. Implementation and pharmacoeconomic analysis of a clinical staff pharmacist practice model. Am J Health Syst Pharm 2001 58 784-790. 

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