Clinical Pharmacy Specialist at Nemours in Wilmington, Delaware

Job Description:

Nemours is seeking a Pediatric Clinical Pharmacy Specialist to join our Nemours Children's Health team in Wilmington, Delaware.

The drug information and formulary management clinical specialist serves as the clinical pharmacy expert and leader in promoting the safe and effective use of medications through formulary management, literature evaluation, and other medication use processes. This position is responsible for providing evidence-based drug information to the healthcare team and oversees activities relating to hospital formulary drug management and the cost-effective use of pharmacotherapy. They are responsible for the training and education of pharmacists/technicians, nurses and medical staff as it relates to clinical activities, competency assessment, development and implementation of clinical programs, the Pharmacy and Therapeutic (P&T) committee's activities and formulary management. They work closely with the medical, nursing and pharmacy staff to develop and maintain services that utilize the pharmacist's drug knowledge base to improve patient care and outcomes, reduce cost, and improve efficiencies.

Essential Functions

1. Anticipate and evaluate the drug information needs of patients and the health care teams (pharmacists, nurses and providers).

a. Use a systematic approach to address drug information needs by effectively searching, retrieving, and critically evaluating the literature (i.e., assessment of study design, statistics, bias, limitations, applicability).

b. Appropriately synthesize, communicate, document, and apply pertinent information to the patient care situation.

2. Establishing and maintaining the hospital drug formulary based on scientific evidence of efficacy and safety, pharmacoeconomic, and NCH-D policies.

a. Maintain and update the hospital formulary (e.g. NCH-D medication guidelines and restriction).

b. Collaborates with the Clinical Informatic Pharmacy Specialist to ensure medication ordering process in the electronic medical records aligns with the hospital formulary.

c. Review non-formulary drug requests: converting non-formulary orders to formulary alternatives when clinically appropriate. Approves non-formulary drug requests when clinically indicated and coordinates procurement of nonformulary drugs when necessary.

3. Coordinating programs to support population-based medication practices that maximize patient outcomes (e.g., development of pharmacotherapeutic guidelines, medication-use evaluation criteria, and therapeutic interchange protocols).

4. Serves as the coordinators for the Pharmacy and Therapeutic (P&T) Committee.

a. Coordinate all activities pertaining to the P&T meetings with stakeholders and committee members.

b. Facilitate the P&T committee meetings.

5. Managing drug shortages, including identifying alternative treatments, developing protocols for restrictive use, and addressing formulary concerns.

6. Monitoring and assessing the clinical significance of medication safety alerts communicated by the FDA, drug manufacturers, and other sources.

7. Leads the efforts in identifying opportunities for cost saving through formulary management ( e.g. conversion from brand to generic product, adoption of biosimilars).

8. Performing health outcome and comparative effectiveness analyses.

9. Ensures NCH-DE compliance to the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) program.

a. Ensures the prescribing and dispensing of formulary medications meeting the FDA REMS program requirement.

b. Facilitates and conducts REMS audit.

10. Participating in quality improvement research projects and drug cost analyses, including forecasting of high-cost drug trends.

11. Able to maintain punctual attendance consistent with NCH-D policies, regulatory, and federal, state, and local standards.

Job Requirements

Doctor of Pharmacy with PGY-1 residency or 5 years pediatric hospital experience required. PGY-2 specialized residency training in pediatrics preferred. Board Certification in Pediatric Pharmacotherapy preferred.

Associates who are not licensed in the state of DE at time of hire must start process for licensure and must obtain that DE licensure on or before the 90th day of employment.

Associates who are not licensed in state(s) of PA, or NJ must obtain licensure for those states within 6 months after start date.

Hospital Pharmacy Experience required

Pediatric Hospital Pharmacy Experience preferred

Knowledge, training and experience in drug information and formulary management preferred

Knowledge and experience with pediatric drug distribution systems preferred.