Consultant pharmacist rates

[prepharmanon]

Hello,

I have been trying to see if I should pursue a future as an independent consultant pharmacist.
However, before trying to decide to jump into it, I had a question about pay.

What is the typical rate per bed or patient if deciding to bill that way? And for comparison, what is the typical hourly rate someone would charge if not using bed count or head count?

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[FakePharmacist]

Hello,

I have been trying to see if I should pursue a future as an independent consultant pharmacist.
However, before trying to decide to jump into it, I had a question about pay.

What is the typical rate per bed or patient if deciding to bill that way? And for comparison, what is the typical hourly rate someone would charge if not using bed count or head count?

Are you preparing for BCGP? If so, let me know how youre doing it. Im also interested in being a consultant pharmacist as well.

 

[SoylentGreen]

I have done this as an independent consultant. Most recently, I have had a place paying me $90/hour. I stopped doing it and apparently they weren't able to find anyone else because they begged me to come back, but when I asked for more money they didn't answer. I have had similar offers that I have turned down. I have also had places that paid better - the best one was $350 per visit to a correctional facility with 6 teenagers who didn't use much other than acne medication, which took about an hour per visit.

Bear in mind that there are no benefits and you have to pay extra taxes on self-employed income, so $90/hour there is probably like $65 or $70 working at a retail pharmacy.

Of course you could also work for Omnicare or some company like that and get paid by the hour - I don't know how they get paid.

I don't know how relevant bed/patient count is because there's a wide range in how much work there is - are you dealing with a nursing home with elderly patients on 10+ meds or a juvenile jail with healthy kids? If dealing with the juvie jail, does the doctor have everybody on multiple psych meds etc, or does he just give them acute meds now and then? Does the staff have everything under control, or are they idiots who do things like lose the charts, divert drugs, etc? This kind of thing can make the difference between the same facility taking a few hours and all day.

Ultimately you are trading your time for money, so I think it's better to do it by the hour.

 

[prepharmanon]

Are you preparing for BCGP? If so, let me know how youre doing it. Im also interested in being a consultant pharmacist as well.

I have some course materials that someone I knew was generous enough to share with me, b

I have done this as an independent consultant. Most recently, I have had a place paying me $90/hour. I stopped doing it and apparently they weren't able to find anyone else because they begged me to come back, but when I asked for more money they didn't answer. I have had similar offers that I have turned down. I have also had places that paid better - the best one was $350 per visit to a correctional facility with 6 teenagers who didn't use much other than acne medication, which took about an hour per visit.

Bear in mind that there are no benefits and you have to pay extra taxes on self-employed income, so $90/hour there is probably like $65 or $70 working at a retail pharmacy.

Of course you could also work for Omnicare or some company like that and get paid by the hour - I don't know how they get paid.

I don't know how relevant bed/patient count is because there's a wide range in how much work there is - are you dealing with a nursing home with elderly patients on 10+ meds or a juvenile jail with healthy kids? If dealing with the juvie jail, does the doctor have everybody on multiple psych meds etc, or does he just give them acute meds now and then? Does the staff have everything under control, or are they idiots who do things like lose the charts, divert drugs, etc? This kind of thing can make the difference between the same facility taking a few hours and all day.

Ultimately you are trading your time for money, so I think it's better to do it by the hour.

Thanks for your input! I really appreciate it because I feel that this field of pharmacy tends to be more elusive.

I was thinking mostly SNFs (maybe occasional ICFs), which is why I asked about rate based on bed count. I was just more overall curious about the rates because some people do hourly like you mentioned of $90/hour (I've also heard $100/hour via Google search XD) while others do bed count. However, when it comes to bed count rate, I can't really find anything as to an average rate per bed. I did do some calculating based on my own current pay with benefits since it would be self employment work, but I don't know if it would be considered normal.

 

[prepharmanon]

Are you preparing for BCGP? If so, let me know how youre doing it. Im also interested in being a consultant pharmacist as well.

I have yet to look into the new format, but I was thinking of enrolling into ASCP coursework.

 

[HandsomeVampire]

I fell upon this a website call trackmtm and their consultation rate seems kind of pricy. what do you think?

 

[SoylentGreen]

How did you get involved in this? Mostly interested in the juvenile type stuff. Thanks!

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My preceptor when I was a grad intern at a retail pharmacy did this as a sideline. He wanted to get out of it so he asked if I wanted. I ended up doing the same thing with another retail pharmacists.

I also had a school approach me - if you get a reputation for doing consulting you may have places that need a consultant looking for you. If you made it so googling "consultant pharmacist (your city)" turns up your name I imagine you would be getting calls.