Creating a Joint Full-Time Pharmacist Position between a Community Pharmacy and a Family Health Team

Abstract

Project Objective:

To use a coordinated hiring process for a joint pharmacist position affiliated with a hospital-owned community pharmacy and a new Ontario Family Health Team (FHT).

Target Groups:

Hospital, community pharmacy, and FHT managers could use this approach to recruit and hire pharmacists who prefer full-time employment versus part-time positions.

Activities:

A hospital-owned community pharmacy and an FHT each had part-time pharmacist positions available. Both organizations felt that filling the positions would be difficult, based on previous recruitment attempts. The hospital pharmacy director approached the FHT manager to advertise the positions separately, with potential for a full-time position for a suitable candidate. No pharmacists applied for the part-time positions, but 3 applied for the joint position and a pharmacist with experience in community and hospital pharmacy practice was hired. A contract was signed by all 3 parties describing the working conditions. The hospital contracts out 50% of the position to the FHT for a monthly fee. The pharmacist receives benefits through the hospital and the FHT is compliant with Ministry of Health hiring conditions. An assigned FHT physician and the hospital pharmacy director supervise the pharmacist at their respective sites. The hospital pharmacy department provides mentor support, through its clinical coordinator, and access to a drug information service. These were identified needs for FHT pharmacists in the Integrating family Medicine and Pharmacy to Advance primary Care Therapeutics (IMPACT) project.

Deliverables:

A successful hiring process, the tri-party contract, and a support mechanism was presented that may be helpful in recruiting pharmacists to over 55 Ontario FHT part-time pharmacist positions and emerging primary care positions across the country. Joint positions ensure that primary care pharmacists do not practise in isolation and also assist FHT managers who have never supervised a pharmacist. As pharmacist involvement in primary care increases across the country, innovative strategies like this co-managed agreement can provide the necessary support for them to flourish.