Senior Rotational Pharmacy Assistant

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Main tasks and responsibilities:

• To work effectively as a member of the Pharmacy team
• To communicate effectively with senior members of staff regarding any problems encountered.
• To communicate effectively with other healthcare professionals, patients, and members of the public.
• To communicate with colleagues in a polite and courteous manner at all times.
• To attend to personal callers and telephone requests in a courteous manner and to communicate effectively with patients, carers, and other healthcare professionals.
• To act as the first point of contact for users of the homecare hub, dealing with telephone calls and enquiries promptly and efficiently, providing immediate response and referring on to the appropriate member of staff as necessary. This may include personal enquiries from patients and their relatives, calls from homecare providers and trust staff. 
• To liaise with Pharmacy staff regarding patient costing and drug use as necessary.
• To liaise with nursing staff and specialist pharmacists regarding patient and medication details.
• To liaise regularly with the Trust Private Patient Administrators regarding any private patient costs by e-mail or telephone. 
• To liaise with the Finance Department regarding cross charging costs and invoicing issues.
• To liaise with the Trust Commissioning and Service Development Department as required

Dispensary:

• To carry out reception duties including answering the telephone and receiving prescriptions from staff and patients in a courteous manner, referring to Pharmacy Technicians or Pharmacists when appropriate
• To process prescriptions using Epic
• To undertake accurate dispensing of prescriptions for inpatients and outpatients, in accordance with current  dispensing procedures. 
• To deal with returned medication from the wards and outpatients including clinical trials.
• Participate in the daily rolling stock take and have responsibility for stock management including re-stocking shelves, stock rotation, stock balancing, expiry date checks and maintaining clean and tidy storage for the various areas within the pharmacy.
• To assist the Lead Pharmacy Technician Patient Services and Chief Pharmacy Technician to maintain efficient stock control.
• To ensure that items taken out of hours are booked out each day to the appropriate Directorate on the Epic integrated system.
• To ensure that to-follow items are dispensed and sent to the wards or posted out to patients in a timely manner.
• To replenish supplies of bottles, cartons and other dispensary disposables when necessary.
• To order further supplies of bottles, cartons and other dispensary disposables when required according to ordering procedures.
  To participate in Bank Holiday and weekend working as well as late duty on a rotational basis.

Homecare:

• To process costing of external Homecare providers invoices monthly according to standard operating procedures and investigate any discrepancies/queries that arise.
• To regularly maintain the pharmacy income spread sheets.
• To ensure all chargeable medicines costs for continuing care and exclusions to the NHS tariff (PbR) are reported in a timely manner to the Trust Commissioning and Service Development Department.
  To regularly liaise with the Pharmacy Income, Purchasing and Distribution Operational Manager, Specialist Pharmacists and Finance Managers.

Distribution:

• To assist in receiving pharmacy orders into the pharmacy department and booking them on to the Epic computer system 
• To assist with the distribution of stock to the wards and departments.
• To be responsible for topping up Pharmacy stock on assigned wards and ensuring the ward stock is correctly stored and stock rotated liaising with ward pharmacists, pharmacy and ward staff.
• To participate in the daily stock checks.
• To be familiar with Omnicell robot and drug cabinets used for medicines storage

Purchasing:

• To ensure there are adequate supplies of medicines available in the Trust
• To procure pharmaceuticals (including medical and special gases) ensuring the accurate processing of these.
• To be involved in the ordering of pharmaceuticals considering the cost, quality, delivery time and reliability of the supplier.
• To ensure contracts are adhered to.
• To obtain urgent medical supplies when required, including organising appropriate transport if required
• To support the management of stock shortages, finding alternatives sources and suppliers and liaising with the clinical teams.
• To be responsible for checking orders for correct quantities and suppliers as specified in Trust and Regional contracts and ensuring orders are signed by an authorised signatory according to Trust Standing Financial Instructions (SFIs).
• To support the processing of invoices ensuring all invoices are passed on time to maximise on discounts and prompt payment settlements.
• To process all invoices and credits in accordance with Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) guidelines and Trust procedures adhering to the Trust Standing Financial Instruction (SFI).
• To ensure that stock purchased off contract is recorded and the price difference is reclaimed promptly.
• To comply with the filing system in the Purchasing Office, ensuring that all documentation is completed accurately, in a timely manner and filed in the appropriate location, so that any paperwork required can be easily located. 
• To manage frequently changing priorities at the request of third parties such as suppliers, purchasers, clinical staff and finance department.
• To assist senior staff with project work when required.
• To follow Trust and Departmental policies and procedures
• To update Pharmacy Department standard operating procedures relating to pharmacy activity data as required
• To use initiative and deal with matters independently where possible, but to refer non routine enquiries to a more senior member of staff as appropriate.
• To prepare private patient invoices using the Epic system.
• To be responsible for the security of the department and of Pharmaceutical supplies.
• To be responsible for the organisation and maintenance of filing systems, inputting information/patient activity onto computerised systems and ensure accurate retrieval and distribution of information.
• To collate charging information for each ward/clinical area/directorate and prepare data to be available for Pharmacy staff to access as appropriate.
• To process all invoices and credits in accordance with the Trust Standing Financial Instructions and Trust procedures
• To investigate and rectify, invoicing problems and discrepancies. This includes investigation of stock and pricing discrepancies. When required provide support and assistance to other staff as required to enable problem solving.
• To actively take part in the departments CPD program.
• To attend relevant courses, training and business meetings as identified by your managers.
• To take part in the training of Pharmacy and hospital staff as required.
• To plan the daily workload and staffing in conjunction with the Senior & Principal Technicians when required.
• To provide training in income and homecare related systems to pharmacy staff as required
• To be able to use pharmacy computer systems correctly, enter data accurately from prescriptions and ensure that data is stored and archived appropriately in accordance with Trust and departmental policies.
• To be proficient in the use of the Epic Pharmacy Stock Control and Dispensing computer system in order to meet the job requirements. 
• To be competent in the use of the Finance Drug Database.
• To be competent in the use of Microsoft Office software.
• To plan workload and to ensure daily, weekly and monthly timetables are met 
• To undertake regular filing ensuring all folders (electronic and paper) are in good order and records are retained for the statutory period of time.
• To ensure all patient and demographic details are checked and any 
  amendments/corrections are carried out in an accurate and timely fashion.

Research and development

• To provide administration support to the homecare team with patient and administration audits for the development of new and revised processes in order improve service levels, quality of information and service levels.

Further sections

• To abide by the Trust’s Core behaviours for staff and all other Trust policies, codes and practices including standing financial instructions, research governance, clinical governance, patient and public involvement, codes and practices, and health and safety.
• To maintain satisfactory personal performances and professional standards and to achieve, where possible, agreed objectives described in the annual staff appraisal system undertaken by the Director of Pharmacy and Medicines Management.

Other duties

• To undertake any other duties commensurate with the grade as requested.