At Houston Methodist, the Pharmacy IT Specialist is responsible for providing and coordinating pharmaceutical care to the patients of Houston Methodist through medication use evaluations, drug policy development, and continuous quality management activities related to his/her specialty focus area designed to improve operational efficiency and patient safety.

The Pharmacy IT Specialist designs or customizes software and leads quality assurance processes that promote efficiency and improvement of business processes as part of an operational team to support medium to large scale projects. Plans and participates in staff development and coordinates intradepartmental quality management and performance improvement initiatives related to the respective specialty areas of focus. Supports all users of application systems, timely implementation of and ongoing maintenance of applications, and provides the opportunity for enhanced user productivity in a culture dedicated to quality and safety.

PATIENT AGE GROUP(S) AND POPULATION(S) SERVED
Refer to departmental "Scope of Service" and "Provision of Care" plans, as applicable, for description of primary age groups and populations served by this job for the respective HM entity.

HOUSTON METHODIST EXPERIENCE EXPECTATIONS

• Provide personalized care and service by consistently demonstrating our I CARE values:
  • INTEGRITY: We are honest and ethical in all we say and do.
  • COMPASSION: We embrace the whole person including emotional, ethical, physical, and spiritual needs.
  • ACCOUNTABILITY: We hold ourselves accountable for all our actions.
  • RESPECT: We treat every individual as a person of worth, dignity, and value.
  • EXCELLENCE: We strive to be the best at what we do and a model for others to emulate.

• Practices the Caring and Serving Model

• Delivers personalized service using HM Service Standards

• Provides for exceptional patient/customer experiences by following our Standards of Practice of always using Positive Language (AIDET, Managing Up, Key Words)

• Intentionally collaborates with other healthcare professionals involved in patients/customers or employees' experiential journeys to ensure strong communication, ease of access to information, and a seamless experience.

• Involves patients (customers) in shift/handoff reports by enabling their participation in their plan of care as applicable to the given job

• Displays cultural humility, diversity, equity and inclusion principles

• Actively supports the organization's vision, fulfills the mission and abides by the I CARE values

PEOPLE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Works closely with Information Systems, Pharmacy staff and other hospital departments to understand system programming requirements, capabilities and limitations, as well as to implement requested ordering and decision support tools.

• Promotes a positive work environment and leads the team to be dynamic and a focused work unit that actively helps one other to achieve optimal results.

• Collaborates with other health care professionals as needed for problem resolution and/or achievement of identified patient specific goals. Role models to team members effective communication skills, assisting in their development of such skills.

• Develops educational materials and provides educational programs for the pharmacy staff and other hospital personnel. Supports preceptors for students from the affiliated colleges of pharmacy and/or pharmacy residents.

• Communicates regularly with pharmacy management and other areas that interact with Pharmacy regarding personnel issues, quality improvement initiatives, and regulatory compliance matters. Effectively implements protocols and objectives with team members to result in optimization of staff performance, teamwork, patient safety, and customer service.

• Regularly communicates with vendors and consultant partners and maintains understanding of system advances by participating in solution user tools.

SERVICE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Manages the development, implementation, training, evaluation and maintenance of clinical informatics projects. Coordinates daily workload fluctuations, recommending changes as appropriate for work output.

• Performs accurate build, testing and support for key applications. Participates in on call and Change Advisory Board (CAB), including on call responsibilities.

QUALITY/SAFETY ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Participates as a member of system committee council focused on patient safety and clinical practices. Identifies and helps to resolve operational and clinical service issues related to technology. Oversees quality assurance processes related to specialty focus areas and applies proven quality assurance methodology (i.e. Six Sigma, Lean, etc.) as appropriate to render improvement.

• Identifies and helps to resolve operational and clinical service issues related to technology. Oversees quality improvement processes related to specialty focus area and applies proven quality assurance methodology (i.e., Six Sigma, Lean, etc.) as appropriate to improvement activities.

• Provides appropriate clinical drug information to operational support teams and project teams. Collects, collates, monitors, reviews and reports on statistical information to champion utilization of accurate quality data.

• Collaborates with other departments as an expert in specialty focus area to improve patient care by participating in hospital and departmental quality management activities.

FINANCE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Identifies cost saving opportunities and shares the ideas with management team.

• Provides budget management input or responsibility for sub-project activities and provides input for operational planning

GROWTH/INNOVATION ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Leads technology assessment, selection, development, planning and implementation of automated systems and assists in the development and/or evaluation of applications, reports, tools, processes and structures which assist clinicians with the management of data and caring for patients.

This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive; the employee will also perform other reasonably related business/job duties as assigned. Houston Methodist reserves the right to revise job duties and responsibilities as the need arises.

EDUCATION

• Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy or Doctor of Pharmacy degree

• Additional master's degree in business or pharmacy administration (i.e. MBA, MS) preferred

WORK EXPERIENCE

• Four years of hospital pharmacy experience OR two years of healthcare IT experience OR a graduate of a PGY 1 and 2 accredited pharmacy informatics residency program

• Project management skills strongly preferred

• Prior experience in a lead role, or HM experience and performance that demonstrates leadership abilities

LICENSES AND CERTIFICATIONS - REQUIRED

• PHRM - Pharmacist - State Licensure within 90 days AND
• EPIC - Beacon Certification -- once obtained, is not subject to renewal within 6 months OR
• EPIC - Willow Certification -- once obtained, is not subject to renewal within 6 months

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

• Demonstrates the skills and competencies necessary to safely perform the assigned job, determined through on-going skills, competency assessments, and performance evaluations

• Sufficient proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing the English language necessary to perform the essential functions of this job, especially with regard to activities impacting patient or employee safety or security

• Ability to effectively communicate with patients, physicians, family members and co-workers in a manner consistent with a customer service focus and application of positive language principles

• Demonstrates advanced experience with electronic clinical systems and ability to apply data processing technology for the clinical and physician services areas

• Demonstrates advanced skills across all phases of system definition/implementation

• Demonstrates expert analytical, logic, problem-solving skills; advanced analysis and design skills, communication and documentation, advanced customer service skills

• Possesses expert knowledge of regulatory requirements (DNV, JCAHO, HIPAA, CMS, etc.) and the interrelation of regulations with electronic systems

• Possesses advanced skill in analysis of costs and benefits of the use of computer technology

• Has advanced knowledge of commonly used programming concepts, practices and procedures within the Information Technology field

• Demonstrates thorough understanding and is a leader in Change Management practices and procedures and has in-depth knowledge and experience in following build exports or migrations between Development, Training, Testing, and Production systems

• Demonstrates proficiency in supported computer systems and business processes which include troubleshooting and on-call support

• Demonstrates advanced project management skills, such as creating and managing project plans and cost benefit analysis

• Demonstrates ability to lead medium to large scale projects

• Demonstrates ability to Research competence in an area related to the practice of pharmacy

• Possesses strong experience and practical application with multiple programming languages

• Pharmacy department drug protocol knowledge and assessment expertise

• Exhibits strong interpersonal, teamwork and leaderships skills with all levels of the healthcare team

SUPPLEMENTAL REQUIREMENTS

WORK ATTIRE

• Uniform No
• Scrubs No
• Business professional Yes
• Other (department approved) No

ON-CALL*
*Note that employees may be required to be on-call during emergencies (ie. DIsaster, Severe Weather Events, etc) regardless of selection below.

• On Call* Yes

TRAVEL**
**Travel specifications may vary by department**

• May require travel within the Houston Metropolitan area Yes
• May require travel outside Houston Metropolitan area Yes

Houston Methodist (HM) is one of the nation’s leading health systems and academic medical centers.  HM consists of eight hospitals: Houston Methodist Hospital, its flagship academic hospital in the heart of the Texas Medical Center, and seven community hospitals throughout the greater Houston metropolitan area.  HM also includes an academic institute, a comprehensive residency program, a global business division, numerous physician practices and several free-standing emergency rooms and outpatient facilities.  Overall, HM employs over 25,000 employees.   Houston Methodist is supported by a wide variety of business functions that operate at the system level to help enable clinical departments to provide the best patient care and service in a spiritual environment.

 

In 2019 Houston Methodist and its physicians treat more than 6,333 international patients from more than 76 countries. Houston Methodist Global Health Care Services’ consulting and education divisions also provide advisory services and training and development to health care organizations around the world.