Clinical Specialty Pharmacist
Specialty Pharmacist
Department: Pharmacy Operations
Reports To: Pharmacist-in-Charge / Director of Pharmacy
Employment Type: Full-Time
Location: Avoca, PA
Position Summary
The Specialty Pharmacist is responsible for providing safe, accurate, and clinically appropriate pharmacy services to patients receiving specialty medications. This position performs prescription verification, clinical review, patient counseling, therapy monitoring, and coordination with prescribers, insurance providers, manufacturers, and other members of the healthcare team.
The Specialty Pharmacist supports patients with complex and chronic medical conditions and helps ensure that each patient receives timely access to therapy, understands how to use the medication, and is monitored for adherence, effectiveness, adverse effects, drug interactions, and other therapy-related concerns.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
- Review and verify specialty prescriptions for accuracy, appropriateness, completeness, and legal compliance.
- Evaluate medication dosing, allergies, contraindications, drug interactions, duplicate therapy, laboratory results, and relevant clinical information.
- Provide comprehensive medication counseling, including administration technique, storage, handling, missed doses, potential adverse effects, and therapy expectations.
- Conduct initial and ongoing clinical assessments for patients enrolled in specialty pharmacy patient-management programs.
- Monitor medication adherence, therapeutic response, adverse reactions, treatment goals, and barriers to successful therapy.
- Identify and document clinical interventions and communicate recommendations to prescribers and other healthcare professionals.
- Contact patients for refill coordination, reassessment, adherence support, and follow-up education.
- Collaborate with prescribers to obtain clarifications, prior-authorization information, laboratory results, and updated prescriptions.
- Assist with therapy initiation and transitions of care to prevent interruptions in treatment.
- Support patients experiencing financial, insurance, delivery, or access-related barriers by coordinating with internal reimbursement and patient-assistance teams.
- Ensure specialty medications are dispensed, packaged, stored, and shipped according to manufacturer requirements, pharmacy policies, and applicable cold-chain procedures.
- Review prescriptions requiring special handling, limited-distribution requirements, REMS program participation, or manufacturer-specific documentation.
- Maintain accurate and timely documentation of assessments, counseling, interventions, adverse events, and communications.
- Report medication errors, adverse drug events, product-quality concerns, and patient safety issues according to pharmacy policy and applicable requirements.
- Participate in quality-improvement activities, accreditation preparation, audits, policy review, and performance-measure reporting.
- Follow all applicable federal and state pharmacy laws, HIPAA requirements, accreditation standards, payer requirements, and company policies.
- Provide clinical guidance and oversight to pharmacy technicians and other support staff.
- Participate in staff education and training related to specialty medications, disease states, workflow procedures, and patient safety.
- Maintain current knowledge of specialty medications, treatment guidelines, emerging therapies, payer requirements, and manufacturer programs.
- Assist with inventory oversight, medication recalls, expiration monitoring, controlled-substance procedures, and product-loss prevention when assigned.
- Perform other pharmacy-related duties as required.
Preferred Clinical Experience
Experience in one or more of the following areas is preferred:
- Hemophilia and other bleeding disorders
- Immunoglobulin therapy
- Multiple sclerosis
- Rheumatology
- Oncology
- Dermatology
- Gastroenterology
- Neurology
- Transplant medicine
- Infectious disease
- Rare or orphan diseases
Required Qualifications
- Doctor of Pharmacy degree or Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from an accredited school of pharmacy.
- Active pharmacist license in good standing in the state of practice.
- Ability to obtain and maintain additional state pharmacist licenses when required by the pharmacy.
- Knowledge of federal and state pharmacy laws, medication-safety practices, and professional standards.
- Strong clinical judgment and attention to detail.
- Excellent patient-counseling, documentation, and communication skills.
- Ability to work effectively with patients, caregivers, prescribers, insurance representatives, manufacturers, and internal team members.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment while maintaining accuracy and patient confidentiality.
- Proficiency with pharmacy-management systems, electronic health records, secure communications, and standard office software.
Preferred Qualifications
- At least two years of pharmacist experience.
- Previous specialty, mail-order, infusion, hospital, ambulatory-care, or clinical pharmacy experience.
- Experience with specialty pharmacy accreditation requirements.
- Experience with prior authorizations, appeals, limited-distribution medications, patient-assistance programs, and manufacturer hubs.
- Board certification or specialty pharmacy certification.
- Immunization certification, when applicable.
- Pharmacist licenses in multiple states.
Core Competencies
- Patient-centered care
- Clinical decision-making
- Medication safety
- Accuracy and attention to detail
- Compassionate patient communication
- Professional documentation
- Regulatory and policy compliance
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Problem-solving
- Time management and organization
- Confidentiality and professional integrity
Physical and Work Requirements
- Ability to remain seated or standing for extended periods.
- Ability to work at a computer and telephone for prolonged periods.
- Ability to perform repetitive tasks requiring close visual attention.
- Ability to lift and move pharmacy supplies or medication packages weighing up to [insert weight] pounds.
- Ability to work scheduled shifts and participate in an on-call, weekend, evening, or holiday rotation when required.
Performance Expectations
The Specialty Pharmacist is expected to:
- Maintain accurate and timely prescription verification.
- Complete patient assessments and reassessments within required timeframes.
- Document all clinical activities completely and consistently.
- Respond promptly to patients, prescribers, and internal team members.
- Promote medication adherence and continuity of therapy.
- Identify and escalate clinical or operational concerns appropriately.
- Maintain compliance with licensing, training, accreditation, and continuing-education requirements.
- Contribute to a professional, respectful, and patient-focused workplace.
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: $50.00 - $80.00 per hour
Work Location: In person
