Becoming a hospital IT Pharmacist?

[SomeGuy]

My impression of this position is that most people "fell" into it once hospital pharmacies started adopting computers in the 80s.

Now that these individuals are retiring, it seems like hospitals are trying to hire drop-in experienced replacements. Good luck finding those without creating another problem somewhere else.

Personally, I have retail and home infusion employment experience, and the hospital placements from school (where I did spend a short time with their IT pharmacist).

I'm pretty much the "computer guy" wherever I go: Not that an IT pharmacist is troubleshooting keyboard problems, but I'm also the one able to utilize new clinical apps, reconfigure them for our purposes, figure out how to run reports, analyze data (Once did an albuterol over-use analysis using refill records and followupped with each patient), discover human factors problems, etc in addition to my personal work (running linux for fun, running several Content Management Systems for several of my own websites, etc).

How would one transition into this kind of IT/clinical information pharmacist role (over a period of years I guess). Should I be applying for entry-level staff/clinical hospital jobs, and saying I'm interested into transitioning into such a role? Or not mention this plan at all? Pursue some kind of training somewhere? Would a hospital hire me to essentially apprentice under the retiring IT pharmacist? Would this be a dead-end job?

I wouldn't mind being the person responsible for setting up, maintaining or investigating pharmacy automation systems, eMAR, CPOE systems, drug usage trends, pricing trends, cost analysis, statistical reports, update etc.

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[p-rog]

I don't the answer to any of your questions but if you don't already know, there are a few IT pharmacy residencies and fellowship programs around that might help you get the "credentials" to help you get the position you want.

http://www.ashp.org/DocLibrary/MemberCenter/SOPIT/InformaticsSpecialtyProgramMatrix.aspx

 

[medicalCPA]

My impression of this position is that most people "fell" into it once hospital pharmacies started adopting computers in the 80s.

Now that these individuals are retiring, it seems like hospitals are trying to hire drop-in experienced replacements. Good luck finding those without creating another problem somewhere else.

Personally, I have retail and home infusion employment experience, and the hospital placements from school (where I did spend a short time with their IT pharmacist).

I'm pretty much the "computer guy" wherever I go: Not that an IT pharmacist is troubleshooting keyboard problems, but I'm also the one able to utilize new clinical apps, reconfigure them for our purposes, figure out how to run reports, analyze data (Once did an albuterol over-use analysis using refill records and followupped with each patient), discover human factors problems, etc in addition to my personal work (running linux for fun, running several Content Management Systems for several of my own websites, etc).

How would one transition into this kind of IT/clinical information pharmacist role (over a period of years I guess). Should I be applying for entry-level staff/clinical hospital jobs, and saying I'm interested into transitioning into such a role? Or not mention this plan at all? Pursue some kind of training somewhere? Would a hospital hire me to essentially apprentice under the retiring IT pharmacist? Would this be a dead-end job?

I wouldn't mind being the person responsible for setting up, maintaining or investigating pharmacy automation systems, eMAR, CPOE systems, drug usage trends, pricing trends, cost analysis, statistical reports, update etc.

This is late, but there is a forum member (tussionex) who is an IT pharmacist, although I haven't seen or heard from her recently. You may want to contact her.