Pharmacist (Clinical Spec) PACT

The CPS serves as a provider with prescriptive authority as outlined in the individuals Scope of Practice.

Duties but not limited to:

• CPS has full responsibility to develop necessary services such as physician consultation patient monitoring patient counseling and medication management clinics within the PACT setting.
• Serves as a physician extender/independent practitioner in a clinic setting requiring the highest level of pharmacist clinical privileges with minimal supervision.
• Directly assists clinicians in rational drug selection by providing written and/or verbal consultation
• Actively participates as a member of the PACT team to assist in monitoring patients therapy as directly related to pharmaceutical care.
• Assures that all prescriptions and actions meet proper eligibility criteria on a patient specific basis and the National Formulary and Non-Formulary procedures are followed; this includes adherence to all national VISN and local criteria for use treatment algorithms and guidelines.
• Participates in developing criteria for use medication use evaluations data collection for pertinent reports and other quality assurance activities as required to ensure appropriate and safe drug utilization.
• CPS manages pharmacotherapy to ensure that treatment guidelines and appropriate medication monitoring recommendations are being followed in addition to adherence to National Formulary and local policy.
• Clinical Pharmacy Specialist will independently manage pharmacotherapy patients not at disease-state goal in his/her pharmacotherapy clinic improving the clinic system efficiency and quality
• Fully utilizes the highest level of clinical privileges for CPS to manage assigned patients.
• Interfaces with providers including physicians PAs ARNPs in the design of the veterans treatment regimen to achieve optimization of rational and cost-effective drug therapy.
• Serves as an authoritative information source on drugs and their utilization in therapy with special emphasis on medications used in treatment of the assigned patients.
• Establishes and expands the patient database through interpreting the drug history medical history allergies/adverse drug events physical examination and ongoing patient specific monitoring of therapy with documentation in the electronic medical record.
• Monitors and assesses therapeutic and adverse effects of drug therapy (including drug interactions) through selection and evaluation of patient-specific and laboratory parameters.
• Provides consultation on selection of appropriate therapeutic regimens as a follow up of non-therapeutic drug concentrations obtained from ambulatory care and inpatients.
• May use telehealth modalities (e.g. clinical video telehealth) to improve access for patients requiring pharmacotherapy.
• Participates in the training and in-servicing of pharmacists pharmacy technicians pharmacy students pharmacy residents and other medical center personnel as requested.
• Provides highly specialized education and training support to other professional services in the broad area of advanced pharmacotherapy.
• May serve as preceptor and/or mentor for pharmacy students and pharmacy residents; maintains at least minimum ASHP requirements for resident preceptorship.
• Assists in new employee orientation sessions as scheduled.
• Assists in the development of proposals for improved and/or new clinical pharmacy services.
• Educates patients on the proper use and care of their medications through the day-to-day personal interactions with patients
• Provides drug information and drug literature evaluations as requested by the professional staff.
• Provides formal education and clinical education in the area of expertise to pharmacists in training.
• Serves as an authority on drug usage interactions over-dosages and compliance to medical staff nursing staff technicians and students. Uses appropriate references to research drug information.
• Has a good working knowledge of information resources both written and electronic.
• Maintains a current knowledge of therapeutics and disease management.
• Provides timely and accurate responses to drug information inquiries.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements ( Effective May 7 2025 drivers licenses or state-issued dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Must pass pre-employment physical examination.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the Required Documents section of this announcement.

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Qualifications

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

Basic Requirements:

United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.

English Language Proficiency. Pharmacists must be proficient in spoken and written English as required by 38 U.S.C. 7402(d) and 7407(d).

Education-Transcripts Submitted:

(1) Graduate of an Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) accredited College or School of Pharmacy with a baccalaureate degree in pharmacy (BS Pharmacy) and/or a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree. Verification of approved degree programs may be obtained from the
Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education 20 North Clark Street Suite 2500 Chicago Illinois 60602-5109; phone: or through their Web site at: Prior to 2005 ACPE accredited both baccalaureate and Doctor of Pharmacy terminal degree program. Today the sole degree is Doctor of Pharmacy.)

(2) Graduates of foreign pharmacy degree programs meet the educational requirement if the graduate is able to provide proof of achieving the Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Examination Commission (FPGEC) Certification which includes passing the Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Equivalency Examination (FPGEE) and the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-Based Test (TOEFL iBT).

Licensure-Documentation Submitted. Full current and unrestricted license to practice pharmacy in a State Territory Commonwealth of the United States (i.e. Puerto Rico) or the District of Columbia. The pharmacist must maintain current registration if this is a requirement for maintaining full current and unrestricted licensure. A pharmacist who has or has ever had any license(s) revoked suspended denied restricted limited or issued/placed in a probationary status may be appointed only in accordance with the provisions in VA Handbook 5005 Part II Chapter 3 section B paragraph 16.

May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).

Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements for employment above the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates.

Clinical Pharmacy Specialist GS-13:

Experience. In addition to the GS-12 requirements must have 1 year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level.

Assignments. Candidates at this grade level are to be in one of the assignments listed below. For all assignments above the full performance level the higher level duties must consist of significant scope administrative independence complexity (difficulty) and range of variety as described in this standard at the specified grade level and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time.

Clinical Pharmacy Specialist. The clinical pharmacy specialist (CPS) functions at the highest level of clinical practice works independently under their scope of practice as defined by the individual medical center to directly care for patients. A CPS plays a defined role in budgetary execution and serves as a mid-level provider who functions to initiate modify or discontinue medication therapy and as a consultant for intensive medication therapy management services. This includes but is not limited to the following: designing implementing assessing monitoring and documenting therapeutic plans utilizing the most effective least toxic and most economical medication treatments; helping achieve positive patient centric outcomes through direct and indirect interactions with patients providers and interdisciplinary teams in assigned areas; performing physical assessments; and ordering laboratory and other tests to help determine efficacy and toxicity of medication therapy. Pharmacists assigned to this position must demonstrate the following

KSAs:

• Ability to communicate orally and in writing to persuade and influence clinical and management decisions.
• Expert understanding of regulatory and quality standards for their program area.
• Ability to solve problems coordinate and organize responsibilities to maximize outcomes in their program area or area of clinical expertise.
• Expert knowledge of a specialized area of clinical pharmacy practice or specialty area of pharmacy.
• Advanced skill in monitoring and assessing the outcome of drug therapies including physical assessment and interpretation of laboratory and other diagnostic parameters.