Purchasing Pharmacist?

[naseuy]

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone is familiar with the roles of a purchasing pharmacist for a Health System, and what their role is. Wouldn't having a buyer (non-pharmacist individual) be more efficient?

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[Sparda29]

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone is familiar with the roles of a purchasing pharmacist for a Health System, and what their role is. Wouldn't having a buyer (non-pharmacist individual) be more efficient?

I work at a hospital with a purchasing pharmacist and a hospital with a secretary that does the buying. I think it's a lot better with the purchasing pharmacist.

The secretary just orders the cheapest **** every time no matter what. The purchasing pharmacist knows which products are better/easier to use for the pharmacists/nurses and orders those regardless of price.

 

[confettiflyer]

A properly trained technician will work just fine, no need to waste RPh salary on that..unless maybe it's THAT big of a health system and the person has other roles -- like managing outpatient pharmacy inventory, 340b compliance, shortage management, etc...

 

[njac]

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone is familiar with the roles of a purchasing pharmacist for a Health System, and what their role is. Wouldn't having a buyer (non-pharmacist individual) be more efficient?

Everywhere I've worked has had a tech in this position.

 

[chaos space marine]

I didn't know pharmacists did this. At our hospital, we have tech-salary folks who do it.

 

[confettiflyer]

We have a pharmacist that does this. he works with the clinicals when there are shortage issues and sends out communications to MDs when there are formulary changes etc.

This sounds more like a clinical coordinator/manager and not purchaser. There's probably another technician actually physically keying in what needs to be purchased and making sure snotty interns put things away.

 

[KidPharmD]

We have managers that take care of 340B, shortages, contracts, etc. and a buyer that does a wonderful job getting us drugs. I imagine a purchasing pharmacist would be the combination of these two roles, although our buyer is a full time position all on its own.

 

[naseuy]

Seems like just a bunch of paperwork.

 

[BidingMyTime]

I have only worked in hospitals that employed technicians in this role. I'm not sure why a pharmacist would ever be required to do this job (unless as others have said, there are a bunch of other clinical duties going with the job.)

 

[owlegrad]

I had a rotation at a health system that had an RPh buyer. Her primary responsibility was indeed keying in the order and reviewing it before sending it. She also contacted wholesalers/manufacturers about supply issues. She did other stuff of course as well, but her primary role was buyer. It seemed like a terrible waste of a pharmacist to me, it seemed that most of her job could easily be done by a technician.