Pharmacy IT Technician job description

Responsibility for the management, development and maintenance of
the ASCribe system on a daily basis and co-ordinating all aspects of Information Technology associated with the Pharmacy department.
This includes the development, installation and support of new and existing systems, providing documented training and a point of contact
between the department and the rest of the software suppliers.
• To provide accurate and timely financial and statistical information for pharmacy staff, finance and service customers external to the Pharmacy.
• To support the development of electronic prescribing
• To support the dispensary by undertaking accredited checking technician duties.
To support staff education and training

1. To have made an effective contribution to reaching the Organisation’s vision, strategic objectives and key work programmes.
2. The post holder is the Pharmacy lead for all Information Technology associated with the Pharmacy department. This includes management of existing systems, development and installation of
future systems and staff training

Overview of Responsibilities :

Pharmacy IT systems:
To ensure the efficient operation of the current integrated Ascribe Pharmacy computer system, including stand alone functions in case of systems failure .To liaise with the system supplier, network providers and others as necessary to overcome any difficulties in the operation of the system. To attend Ascribe User Group meetings as required.

To set up cost centres and consultants on Ascribe, to ensure that these are correctly linked to
Directorates and Specialities to ensure effective and accurate costing of medicines use. To report new cost centres to all interested parties
To authorise users and generate passwords on the Ascribe and Prescription Tracker systems.
To maintain and update procedures covering all aspects of the use of the Ascribe Pharmacy system, the Rowa automated dispensing system and Prescription tracker.

To develop and maintain training programs for Ascribe. To train new members of staff on the
system.

To work with Health Informatics and Finance to implement automated links between Pharmacy systems and other Organisation systems such as Service Line reporting.

Systems Management
To be responsible for checking the accuracy of new drug entries, amendments and patient details on the pharmacy systems to ensure that systems of work are clinically safe and effective to use

To manage and be responsible for co-ordinating the daily system backup and regular housekeeping tasks, system integrity checks and other software tasks as appropriate

Pharmacy Information reporting
To build monthly, quarterly and annual databases from Ascribe data. To produce routine reports for distribution to finance, senior pharmacy staff and external organisations as required. To produce ad hoc reports for auditing and other purposes.

To analyse and interpret complex data and provide it in a format that meets the requesters Needs, linking with other Organisation activity information to provide greater insight into pharmacy data and using external sources to provide efficiency and quality benchmarks

To devise specialist reports to monitor high drug values and their potential impact on the Organisation.

This includes production and interpretation of management and financial data and performance indicators as directed by the Chief Pharmacist. This involves creating and validating information within spreadsheets and databases.

Quality and Efficiency Programme
Supporting the Chief Pharmacist in providing High Cost Drugs information from Ascribe and support the Finance Department to ensure that the Organisation receives monies due. Processing request forms in conjunction with the Prescribing Manager.

To provide a supporting role in the future implementation of new developments such as Organisation
electronic prescribing.
 
To maintain and develop use of the Pharmacy automated dispensing system (ROWA Speedcase). To troubleshoot any problems that occur with the system and to liaise with ARX company engineers if necessary to ensure faults are rectified as quickly as possible. To train
new staff on the system according to their access level.

To maintain the Prescription Tracker system. To train new staff on the use of the system and to produce statistical reports to enable analysis of workload and prescription turnaround times.

Utilisation of ‘Prescription tracker’ reports to monitor work flow and improve turnaround times
for prescriptions

Pharmacy support duties
To keep up to date with all procedures in the Dispensary and cover for technical colleagues where necessary by taking part in the dispensing process. This will include:

To dispense all types of prescriptions and inpatient orders, presented to the Pharmacy from wards and departments, contacting prescribers if needed to ascertain clarity of
prescriptions
To counsel outpatients and carers on the use of their medication (compliance, side effects, possible drug interactions) ascertain if they have any allergies and if taking any OTC medication
To assess patients’ needs on counselling to ensure compliance
To dispense Clozapine prescriptions in accordance with monitoring procedures and ensure accurate records of prescriptions and blood results
To ensure that to-follows and special orders are dealt with
To organise and prioritise work so that all prescriptions are completed in timely manner in respect of urgency and transport deadlines
To ensure that medication is supplied in accordance with the Drug and Therapeutics committee and Medicines management Programme
To supervise and direct, when necessary, Pharmacy staff, ensuring that duties are carried out in accordance with agreed procedures, local policies and official directives.
To act as an accredited checker within the department, performing final accuracy checks on prescriptions and orders that have previously been clinically screened by a Pharmacist in accordance with local procedures.

To support departmental training, including the NVQ programme.
To attend courses, study days and meetings as necessary.
To maintain CPD portfolio in line with General Pharmaceutical council requirements to retain registration. To undertake Continuing Professional Development in order to keep pharmaceutical knowledge current, ensure best practice and comply with requirements for
Pharmacy technician registration. It is the post holder’s responsibility to maintain that registration.
To assist with recruitment of junior pharmacy staff
To assist with the induction of new staff.
To take part in the late night, weekend and Bank Holiday rotas
To undertake any other duties commensurate with the grade and experience as requested
To undertake any training required in order to maintain competency including mandatory
training, i.e. Fire, Manual Handling
To take part in regular performance appraisal

General
All pharmacy staff must show confidentiality with regard to any information about patients, confidential information about the Organisation and commercial information (e.g. drug prices).
All work will be carried out in accordance with the relevant laws, the guidelines of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and the General pharmaceutical council, Organisation and departmental procedures and standards of professional practice
The post requires that the holder is registered as a pharmacy technician with the General Pharmaceutical Council. It is the post holder’s responsibility to maintain that registration

Qualifications

and Further Training
BTEC/NVQ level 3 in Pharmaceutical Sciences or equivalent
Registration with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain
Accredited Checking Technician
Qualified NVQ A1 assessor

Experience
Experience of Pharmacy IT systems, preferably at system management level
Ability to write financial reports
Ability to write procedures
Training staff
Staff recruitment

Knowledge
Good working knowledge of MS Windows and in particular spreadsheets, Word, databases, email and webbrowsers
Working knowledge of Crystal Reports Understanding of the installation and configuration of PC hardware
Working knowledge of networks, servers
and other forms of IT communication
Must be able to demonstrate that you have knowledge of your professional code of conduct and guidance issued by
your professional body and that you adhere to these.

Skills
Effective written and verbal
communication skills
Presentation skills
Accuracy and attention to detail

Pharmacy IT Technician job description