Chief Pharmacy Information Officer

Job Overview

Are you a visionary leader with a passion for integrating technology and pharmacy services to enhance patient care? The Trust is seeking a dynamic Chief Pharmacy Information Officer (CPIO) to join our team. This pivotal role will drive the digital transformation of our pharmacy services, ensuring the highest standards of patient safety, efficiency, and innovation.

This is an exceptional opportunity for a Registered Pharmacist with exceptional leadership qualities to become part of this journey, leading digital transformation across the system as Chief Pharmacy Information Officer.

The Chief Pharmacy Information Officer will work closely with the Chief Clinical Information Officer and Chief Nursing Information Officer, with accountability to the Trust Chief Pharmacist.

This transformational role will lead to new ways of working using digital and informatics technologies, transforming care delivery across all clinical and operational environments and professions. You will act as a spokesperson for the pharmacy department for digital implementation, innovation and be linked with pharmacy workflows and clinical informatics.

Main duties of the job

• Lead the strategic development and implementation of digital pharmacy services across the Trust.
• Collaborate with clinical, IT, and administrative teams to integrate pharmacy information systems.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory standards and best practices in digital health.
• Drive initiatives to improve medication management, patient safety, and clinical outcomes through technology.
• Provide expert guidance on the use of data analytics to optimize pharmacy operations and patient care.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation within the pharmacy services.
  
  

Working for our organisation

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust is committed to being an inclusive and disability confident employer and has been awarded the Gold for the Armed Forces Employment Recognition Scheme. We provide first class development opportunities for all staff and have a wide range of professional, management and leadership, and clinical skills training available.

Here at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, we know how important it is to have a healthy work life balance; this benefits not only individuals but the patients we care for too.

We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service and its users.

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Purpose Of Job

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To act as the strategic pharmacy lead for developing and supporting all pharmacy related digital transformation systems build and the Trusts EPR, relating to prescribing and medicine usage, providing highly specialised advice including reviewing, design, and configuration of the system, ensuring digital pharmacy strategy is aligned with pharmacy business plans.
• Develop a more digital workforce for pharmacy and ensure all EPR and logistics system training and certification for all the team members is in place to meet service needs.
• Advise on procurement, implementation, and benefits realisation in clinical and non-clinical digital system projects from a pharmacy perspective.
• To be main point of contact between Trust EPR team and Pharmacy Team and to liaise with external stakeholders including ICB and other pharmacy networks, providing specialist advice and guidance on the impact of new systems, changes to existing systems, data, and reports, to ensure trends are seen.
• To ensure all tasks and operations of provisional service relating to prescribing is responsive to internal and external demand, safe, effective, and efficient, including logging, monitoring, and escalating EPR system incidents.
• To be accountable for clinical governance in relation to electronic prescribing, the safe, cost efficient and effective use of the prescribing system and medicines.
• To ensure EPR system adheres to local and national guidelines.
• To advise, support and discuss with the Senior Pharmacy Team and lead pharmacists on all aspects of decisions relating to digital, including electronic prescribing to incorporate into pharmacy development plan.
• To lead on the Trust pharmacy digital strategy.
• To line manage IT technician posts.
  
  

Key Tasks & Responsibilities

Strategic

• To develop a strategy for the continuing post-implementation optimisation, and maintenance of the EPR system, in line with local and national guidelines relating to medicine safety, formulary, protocols etc.
• Planning and implementation of other systems such as WellSky, Omnicell, impact on area of clinical documentation on all FHFT sites.
• Ensuring optimum use and maintenance of systems
• Incorporation of pharmacogenomics within digital systems
• Advise the Senior Pharmacy Team, relating to information systems maintenance, options, optimisation, and strategic planning, including regular board reports on work-plans and strategy aligned with wider digital programme.
• Advise the Trust Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO), Trust Chief Nurse Information Officer (CNIO) and Trust IT on pharmacy digital enabling issues and risks such as dispensing, pharmacy database management, chemotherapy, aseptic manufacturing etc.
• Modernise and transform Pharmacy Services working with external suppliers to streamline automated processes.
• Support on areas of design, implement, build, and maintain bespoke software solutions for data capture and reporting within the Pharmacy.
• Support developing the strategy for pharmacy automation including robotics and artificial intelligence (AI).
• To have oversight of all application development for pharmacy to offer digital solutions to improve efficiencies in consideration of the EPR programme.
• Support the research activity of senior clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians by advising and developing information reporting as required.
• Advise the Trust on electronic solutions to improve patient safety, efficiencies and savings including electronic ward cabinets, secure storage and optimising use of the EPR.
• Support alignment of multiple sites and harmonisation of practice where appropriate
• Contribute to patient experience initiatives using digital technology to improve outcomes including patient surveys, drone delivery systems, remote pharmacy consult etc.
  
  

Operational/Digital

To develop, implement and monitor policies and procedures relating to the use and maintenance of pharmacy digital component of EPR, ensuring these are compatible with Trust IT standards and national IT strategic direction.

• To responsible for the resolution of technical and operational issues relating to pharmacy computer systems
• To be able to configure and maintain EPR drug files, order sets, and electronic guidance links.
• To extract and analyse complex sensitive information from a variety of IT sources to support clinical activities within pharmacy and other departments in the Trust.
• Be responsible for the management and implantation of business continuity plans with respect to all pharmacy IT systems, information flows and equipment.
• To be an expert in EPR in relation to functionality, configuration, and day to day work practice.
• To ensure EPR team are providing onsite presence during new workflow implementations and have the on the ground expert support where needed.
• To lead and co-ordinate pharmacy response to enable, support and advise on installations of software and updates in use within the pharmacy department.
• To assist and be responsible for ensuring all changes including medications builds, are all quality assured and accurately completed and all areas approved.
• To provide the final sign off after support testing and before the migration of work into live environments
• To ensure EPR team are providing onsite presence during new workflow implementations and have the on the ground expert support where needed.
• To be in charge and responsible for requesting and approving medication to be built into EPR, liaising with lead pharmacists, including formulary and clinicians.
• To work closely with the clinical teams within each Pharmacy and the Trust, providing oversight for medication management workflows, from designing through to testing and final sign off.
• To provide managerial support to the continuous improvement of the FHFT pharmacy intranet and internet to ensure that it remains a comprehensive database of guidelines and policies together with promotion of pharmacy services.
• To be responsible to keep up to date with national best practices relating to EPR and be well versed in the current literature and publications, including attending national EPR events and regional and national networking. Be responsible for supporting clinical governance relating to electronic prescribing and work closely with the Trust digital team.
• Ensure good record keeping of all decisions made.
• To be responsible for advising and influencing on prioritisation of issues
• To work closely with the Medicine Safety team in relation to electronic prescribing and identify and manage risks relating to EPR implementation.
• To liaise with appropriate internal and external stakeholders, ensuring the development and maintenance of interfaces.
• To lead on the development of system data, relevant reporting which can be populated into key dashboards for both pharmacies, including quality and efficiency.
• To develop systems to identify data quality issues within pharmacy systems used at FHFT and resolve issues before any serious incidents, stock, system or financial issues arise.
  
  

FINANCIAL

• To manage costs for training and international expenses relating to EPR certification
• To support reporting of all drug transactions in the Trust to ensure that the Trust’s information needs on drug usage and expenditure are met.
• Support the pharmacy Cost Improvement Programme (CIP).
  
  

Management and leadership

• To help prioritise workload and direction of the pharmacy EPR team.
• Act as positive role model for the pharmacy staff.
• Demonstrate leadership to the pharmacy team, including coaching and mentoring, developing the team, and enhancing the department’s performance, training them to utilise their strength and working on their weaknesses.
• To promote evidence-based practice through prescription monitoring.
• Supervise pharmacy staff where needed to support and develop in relation to the EPR systems and other digital systems.
• Deputise for their line manager if instructed or delegated.
  
  

Education and Training

• To assist with helping and updating training materials with the EPR Principal trainer, where changes are made to practice.
• To monitor the quality of the training materials and sessions delivered to ensure it meets requirements, effectiveness, and suitability.
• To lead during major process changes within EPR and be present, providing support, motivation, and reassurance to the pharmacy staff.
• Ensuring all training is in line with national objectives.
• To ensure self-development of skills and competencies related to the role, making sure professional knowledge is up to date.
• Participate in junior doctors and other multi-professional induction and annual update training in EPR and digital systems.
• To design, coordinate and undertake clinical audits involving the EPR and digital systems.
  
  

Person specification

Essential Criteria

Essential criteria

• Qualifications
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Qualifications
  
  

Specific competencies for the role

Essential criteria

• Specific competencies for the role
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Specific competencies for the role
  
  

Professional/ Specialist/ Functional Experience

Essential criteria

• PROFESSIONAL/ SPECIALIST/ FUNCTIONAL EXPERIENCE
  
  

Desirable criteria

• PROFESSIONAL/ SPECIALIST/ FUNCTIONAL EXPERIENCE
  
  

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust (FHFT) has an outstanding reputation and a proud record of achievement. As a well performing, well led and ambitious Foundation Trust, we have exciting times ahead of us. We have an ongoing commitment to improving the health and care services for the 900,000 people we serve across Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey and south Buckinghamshire.

We are proud of the ambitions laid out in our strategy, Our Future FHFT, including our vision to be a leader in health & wellbeing, delivering excellence for our communities.

We continue to invest in our services and facilities, including a £10 million upgrade to the hospital maternity unit as well as £49m major new Emergency Assessment Centre on our Wexham Park site. The opening of a brand new £100m state of the art hospital which replaced the existing hospital facility at Heatherwood and are planning to invest further in diagnostics and inpatient capacity at Frimley Park.

We have also made significant investment in our quality improvement and digital programmes to support our vision and we will ensure that we achieve our aim of providing the highest quality healthcare to our patients. Our new EPR – Epic – went live in June and we are already beginning to reap the benefits of this ambitious investment.

Our three core values, and the behaviours that support them, guide everything we do and set out what we expect of our staff in the way they treat patients, visitors, service users and each other, Committed to Excellence, Working Together and Facing the Future.

Apply online now