Ambulatory Antimicrobial Stewardship Clinical Pharmacy Specialist

Job Description Summary

The Clinical Pharmacy Specialist for Ambulatory/Outpatient Antimicrobial Stewardship provides dedicated pharmacy leadership for the development, implementation, monitoring, and continuous improvement of antimicrobial stewardship across the MUSC Health ambulatory network. The specialist advances safe, effective, evidence-based, and cost-conscious antimicrobial prescribing through prescribing surveillance, clinician feedback, guideline development, education, electronic health record interventions, and performance reporting.

The specialist functions as part of the MUSC Health System Antimicrobial Stewardship pharmacy team, collaborates with physicians, nursing, quality, information solutions, infection prevention, microbiology, population health, and operational leaders, and participates in cross-coverage and rotating staffing shifts as assigned.

Entity

Medical University Hospital Authority (MUHA)

Worker Type

Employee

Worker Sub-Type​

Regular

Cost Center

CC000603 CHS - Pharmacy - Administration Quality and Safety Services (Main)

Pay Rate Type

Salary

Pay Grade

Health-34

Scheduled Weekly Hours

40

Work Shift

Day (United States of America)

Job Description

Job Responsibility

Clinical Pharmacy Services - 40%

Act as a role model and mentor to clinical pharmacists for clinical initiatives.

Aid in administration of medications in accordance with legal regulations and Medical Center policies, as applicable.

Applies pharmacokinetic principles to achieve efficacious, safe, and economical pharmacotherapeutic regimens.

Attends meetings related to disease state-related projects and clinical services on a local, state, and national level.

Chart review and cross-cover other patient services typically covered by another clinical specialist and/or clinical pharmacist as needed to ensure continuity of care for all patients.

Collaborate with clinical specialists to alleviate medication related issues for patient care. Competently and willingly perform the functions of a clinical specialist when needed.

Collaborate with clinical pharmacists to alleviate medication related issues for patient care. Competently and willingly perform the functions of a clinical pharmacist when needed.

Collect all pertinent information to understand the patient’s medical/medication history

Coordinate therapeutic drug monitoring programs for your patient population as applicable.

Coordinate with other clinical specialists, schedulers, referring providers, and nurses as applicable to initiate treatment, follow-up, and monitoring plans

Counsels patients and/or caregivers as to proper drug administration, potential adverse reactions, and medication storage

Develops educational and care plans for patients to assist them in reaching treatment goals

Develops patient care plans in concert with the medical and pharmacy team

Document all interventions in the medical record or other designated software per MUSC Policies and Best Practice.

Evaluate patients drug regimen for efficacy, side effects, supportive care needs, drug-interactions, contraindications, and warnings, and identify the need for any dose adjustments, or therapeutic alternatives.

Exhibit and utilize specialized knowledge of therapeutic agents, administration, symptom management, and supportive care.

Identify drug-related problems such as complications resulting from drug therapy (ineffective therapy, allergic reactions, drug interactions, and adverse drug reactions). Develop actionable steps to rectify these problems.

If an on-call program exists in your area of practice, participate in the on-call program on a rotational basis as scheduled.

In collaboration with the medical team, participate in transitions of care planning to ensure an uninterrupted continuum of care.

Interprets laboratory and other patient-specific data to develop treatment plans and monitor response to therapy

Maintain competence in specialty area and sub-specialty area. If board certified in primary specialty area, maintain certification. If seeking certification, ascertain within one year of employment, or complete equivalent competencies to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and abilities at the level of a clinical specialist. Competencies can be CE credits in area of specialty, or other approved educational courses as agreed upon with supervisor

Make or recommend customized changes to patient treatment goals based on individual patient outcomes

Make verbal or written recommendations in a clear, succinct, and appropriate manner.

Monitor patients while receiving and after treatment for toxicities, efficacy, organ dysfunction, compliance and recommend dose adjustments if needed.

Participates as an integral member of the assigned patient care team. Assists with therapeutic decisions such as drug product selection, drug dosing, and therapeutic drug monitoring for clinic and/or pharmacy patients

Participates in other identified clinical initiatives that are identified throughout the year

Provide medication-related interventions focused on selecting the safest and most appropriate therapy that offers the best potential outcomes for patients while being mindful of financial impact.

Provide patient specific medication review to detect significant drug-drug, drug-laboratory, drug-food, and drug-disease interactions. Make recommendations to avoid and/or account for interactions.

Provides clinical pharmacy services to a consult service, including daily rounds, if feasible

Recommend appropriate care setting (inpatient or outpatient) based on patient therapy, potential side-effects, monitoring, and supportive care needs. Participate in interdisciplinary patient care. May be clinic, rounds, sit-down rounds, work groups, team meetings, etc.

Recommends therapy or alternative approaches based on interpretation of relevant medical literature and clinical experience

Respond to therapeutic queries posed by physicians and other health care providers.

Review patient medical records for necessary information to ensure the safety and optimization of medication treatment.

Serves as the MUSC contact for anti-infective formulary decisions

Serves as a pharmacy liaison to the microbiology lab and infection control group

Distributive Pharmacy Services - 5%

Assist with medication order entry and verification when needed to support patient care. Enters medication orders into the EHR within scope of practice and in alignment with prescribing policies

Complies with department policies and procedures on procurement.

Contacts prescriber for clarification if prescription requires correction or verification and documents interventions or resolution on prescription and/or in the EMR

Help to solve operational problems in area of practice

Perform supervisory functions by providing immediate and direct supervision of supportive personnel assigned to his/her area and participate in the annual performance review process for these staff members.

Take responsibility for conduct and success of shift. Gives report and pass off any important and relevant information to oncoming shift.

Scholarship - 10%

Assists and supports formulary reviews, evaluations, and assessments to the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee in the area of his/her expertise

Attend external healthcare organizations to represent MUSC and bring back major insights to share and implement

Collect data related to ambulatory anti-infective prescribing and utilization and report to pharmacy, physicians, hospital leadership, and state and national authorities, as applicable

Contribute towards area-specific metrics (quality, clinical, productivity, or financial)

Encourage provider involvement in decisions about practices and policies that impact their work, such as CPA protocols

Participate in other committees/meetings as applicable to your practice area. Examples include