Anyone here working Informatics with Epic?

[Beacon]

Former oncology pharmacist, I just began a new job as the pharmacist for the beacon team, I will be the team lead. I am just curious how your Beacon team is arranged and which duties each member is responsible for, and what the role of the pharmacist on your team is as compared to techs, RNs, MDs etc.

I currently have 3 team members, A CPhT, RN, and PharmD. We are set to go live in a month.

Thanks in advance for the info!

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[rxblitzrx]

Our organization is going live next year. We are also implementing Beacon but I'm on the Willow team. Our Beacon team has three members: 1) Onc pharm (team lead) 2) Onc RN (analyst) 3) Consultant - instructional designer.

Analysts should have the best problem solving skills on the team. They will need to figure out how things work, and what's causing them to break. Example: why isn't the light in your bedroom turning on? start with the light switch, then check the fuse box, then call the electric company... something like that.

Instructional Designers work best if they have rapport with your staff that will learn to use Beacon. They don't have to be a pharmacist since everything they teach is scripted for them... down to every word they are supposed to say in class. They basically just need organizational skills to keep the lesson plans organized and be able to read. (this is over simplified, but just trying to make the distinction between your problem-solvers)

 

[Beacon]

Thanks! This is the kind of stuff I was looking for. Surprised there aren't more informatics pharmacists on this forum, I didn't realize it was so rare. How long have you been doing Willow? Do your Willow and Beacon teams work together a lot?

 

[rxblitzrx]

It's been about five months. I just got certified two months ago and we're starting to build medications in the ERX master file. Beacon is all about building protocols, but they have to wait for Willow to build out the meds that go in the protocols. I'm sure they have many other things to build and do before we finish our meds, but that's how they work together. There's lots of integrated areas too that require close ties with every other clinical application in the Epic suite.

I'm hoping to go back and learn Beacon when we get some down time. It helps to be cross-trained to provide coverage when people are out.

 

[flip05]

glad that I found this thread. been looking for some it pharmacists here at sdn. Im currently a tech but as of now im planning on getting into pham school. and im sort of interested in the it side of pharmacy. do you guys have any advice? I know a bit of programming

 

[Beacon]

glad that I found this thread. been looking for some it pharmacists here at sdn. Im currently a tech but as of now im planning on getting into pham school. and im sort of interested in the it side of pharmacy. do you guys have any advice? I know a bit of programming

Programming is not necessary, there is no coding involved in these jobs. All of that is done by programmers at the company providing the software.

My advice to you is to avoid pharmacy school at this point. Not only are more and more positions out of retail requiring a residency, but those positions often pay less than retail jobs. At my facility, they have hired residency trained rphs for staffing positions, and all of them also had a bachelors degree. That puts them at five years of post grad work; I figure two more years of residency and you could have been an attending physician.

My advice to you at this point in the game is to stay a technician try and work toward becoming the buyer for the hospital, and go for a MS in informatics in your spare time to get your foot in the door of the informatics field or an MPH or MBA to get into administration. Go to the least expensive school possible. Pharmacy technicians are valuable members of the informatics team; no debt and no 4 years in professional school required. Learning proper punctuation and grammar wouldn't hurt either.

 

[ITCPhT]

I was the team supervisor and an analyst for our Willow implementation. We went live in August 2012. We had 3 pharmacists, an RN, and me (CPhT). During the build I focused more on the financial pieces, project management, and HR stuff. This let the RPhs focus on the med build. Our RN handled a lot of the label and reporting builds.

I've been really struggling with the idea of going for a PharmD. I'm paid well, but I'll cap out well below what a pharmacist will make. However, I don't have the debt load. I do have a BA in Management, so I have been thing about an MS in Informatics.

 

[Lnsean]

Question for all you IT pharmacist out there,

How would one even go about in getting one of these jobs or getting experience in these jobs. I think it would be an area that I would love to get into but heard that basically you have to have been already working for the hospital as their pharmacist and they promote you as the position opens.

 

[Beacon]

heard that basically you have to have been already working for the hospital as their pharmacist and they promote you as the position opens.

Pretty much it. Or take your pharmd and try to get a job with one of the electronic health record companies directly after school (Epic, Cerner etc). Work with them then move on to a hospital's team. ASHP has a good overview of what an informatics pharmacist's typical job description is like.