This position is in the Pharmacy Service located at the VA Bedford Medical Center, MA. This position is Full-Time at 40 hours per week.

Duties

Pharmacy technicians prepare medications by counting, pouring, weighing, measuring, and mixing or compounding oral and intravenous medications. The pharmacy technician may also prepare medications for distribution to inpatient wards and clinics and outpatients for pickup and mailing. The pharmacy technician works in collaboration with other pharmacy technicians and responds to requests of pharmacists and other pharmacy supervisory staff. Duties include, but not limited to: Ensures that adequate off-line inventory levels of unit dose medication packaged through automation are maintained based on utilization trends. Maintains and reviews daily and weekly reports as appropriate on utilization of controlled substances, null transaction, item expiratory and discrepancies. Monitors automation system functions and connectivity. Troubleshoots problems with automated dispensing cabinets and unit dose prepackaging machines. Performs or schedules basic and routine maintenance to automated dispensing devices or other equipment. Trains and orients Pharmacy Staff in the operation of the automation equipment. Maintains automated equipment user files. Inventories and replenishes automated equipment. Prepares and maintains a written annual competency assessment test for the pharmacy staff. Communicates with departments outside of Pharmacy concerning discrepancies, errors, machine failures, and other problems that arise. Ensures automated dispensing cabinets are appropriately utilized for storage and dispensing of controlled substances. Interacts with the Controlled Substance Inspection Officials in troubleshooting problems. Removes expired medications from stock and follows facility policy and procedure for disposal. Serves as a back up to other inpatient pharmacy technicians, which includes but is not limited to Unit Dose, outpatient, IV room compounding sterile preparations as well as evening coverage. Assists the Inpatient Pharmacy Supervisor in collecting data for workload reports and process improvement projects. Monitors controlled substance accountability records to identify questionable circumstances or unusual trends by examining pre-defined surveillance reports, written controlled substance records, and individual patient records. Communicates to supervisor any activities involving controlled substances that deviate from approved policies and procedures. Actively participates in the writing, updating, training, and implementation of facility policy and procedure pertaining to controlled substances and automated dispensing cabinets. Pharmacy Technician: vacareers.va.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/Total-Rewards-of-a-Pharmacy-Technician-Career-Flyer.pdf Work Schedule: Full-Time, Monday-Friday, 8:30am-5:00pm. Compressed/Flexible:Not Available. Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases when setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of existing pay, higher or unique qualifications, or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade). Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year) Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior [work experience] or military service experience. Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child. Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66. Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement) Telework: Not Available. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: F06758 Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized. Notifications: This position is in the Excepted Service. Due to a critical staffing shortage, 38 U.S.C. § 7412 waives the requirement to apply Veterans' preference for this job announcement. Current and former Federal employees must submit copies of their most recent SF-50, (Notice of Personnel Action). The SF-50 must identify the position title, series, grade, step, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). In some cases, more than one SF-50 may be required to show a higher grade previously held. This position is eligible for coverage by a NAGE Bargaining Unit. This position is covered by a special rate. Narrative responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) may be required from the selectee in order to proceed with the appointment.

Requirements

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. Education or Experience. None required. For all grade levels and positions that accept both education and experience to qualify, equivalent combinations of qualifying education and experience that total at least 100% are qualifying. The combined percentage is determined by adding total qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level to the education as a percentage of the education required for the grade level. Certification. For positions above the full performance level, the employee must pass a national certification exam and hold an active national certification through either: (a) PTCB as a CPhT. OR (b) NHA as a ExCPT. 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: GS-08: Candidates must possess one year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade (GS-07) level and demonstrate the KSAs below: (a) Comprehensive knowledge of concepts, principles, methodology and policies in a specialized area or section of pharmacy (such as sterile compounding, controlled substances, automation, clinical pharmacy, contact center, etc.) Note: See Specialized Area.in the Definitions Section. (b) Skill in training and orienting new and existing pharmacy facility employees and students on proper policies and procedures. (c) Ability to evaluate, analyze and coordinate workflow and work activities within a specialized area or section of the pharmacy. Assignment: For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, complexity and range of variety and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time. Pharmacy technicians at this level have a higher level of responsibility for specialized areas of pharmacy and are expected to independently carry out assigned tasks of considerable difficulty. Pharmacy technicians at this grade level may be appointed to one of the following assignments: (a) Pharmacy Technician. Pharmacy technicians in this assignment specialize in areas such as sterile compounding, oncology, controlled substances, medication history review, clinical specialist (anticoagulation, pain, infectious diseases), clinical informatics, automation, immunizations and any other specialized area in the advancement of the profession. The pharmacy technician will serve as a subject matter expert and key resource in the day-to-day technician duties of the specialized area. The technician will be performing assignments such as compounding sterile products, filling controlled substance prescriptions while maintaining compliance with Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) regulations, taking medication histories and counseling patients, managing automation, managing workflow and training and orienting staff in the specialized area. Preferred Experience: Preferred 5 years of Administrative Experience in Automated Dispensing Cabinet Management and Report Analysis. Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/. Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Service.

Education

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Contacts

• Address VA Bedford Healthcare System 200 Springs Road Bedford, MA 01730 US
• Name: Molina Vantha
• Phone: 781 687 2000
• Email: [email protected]