Purchasing Pharmacist?
Started by naseuy
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.
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...
I didn't know pharmacists did this. At our hospital, we have tech-salary folks who do it.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
