Pharmacy Homecare Purchasing Support Officer

Job summary

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust is currently has an exciting opportunity for a Pharmacy Homecare Purchasing Support Officer to work within our Medicines Homecare team. You will work closely alongside a team of experienced technical, professional and homecare administration, staff to maintain and develop a high standard of Medicines Homecare to patients with often long term and complex conditions who receive their medication at home.

You need to be highly competent in purchasing or financial processing tasks, with a meticulous eye for detail, and able to turn round large volumes of work accurately to tight deadlines. Experience of working in a busy financial environment is ideal.

Main duties of the job

The post holder's primary focus will be to support the financial and businessmanagement of the critical medicines homecare operations, related financial systems and procurement processes. This will be achieved by applying your financial administration / purchasing skills providing valuable support in ensuring NHS resources are used wisely . The role incorporates Trust-wide processing, and therefore the post holder will be required to work at QMC, City and Treatment Centre Homecare offices.

Medicines homecare can be described as the dispensing and delivery of ongoing medicine supplies by a THIRD party homecare provider. All services are initiated by the hospital, delivered direct to the patients home with their consent. This improves patient care, gives them a choice of their clinical treatment, most find it a lot more convenient

About us

The Pharmacy homecare team sits within the wider Pharmacy Medicines Finance Team. We are a friendly, hard-working team who are an important part of the hospital Pharmacy department. This post is ideal if you are keen to develop your pharmacy career in a varied challenging environment. We are dedicated to helping you to develop your talent, and training and development opportunities tailored to you will be provided in this role.

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has a national and international reputation for many of its specialist services and expertise including stroke, renal, neurosciences, cancer services and trauma. We are also at the forefront of many research programmes and new surgical procedures. As a teaching Trust we have a strong relationship with our colleagues at the University of Nottingham and other universities across the East Midlands

Job description

Job responsibilities

In addition to the below summary you need to familiarize yourself with full Job Description and Person Specification documents attached to this advert.

KEY JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

To be part of the Pharmacy Medicines Finance team in providing financial,performance and business management services to the Department.

Develop and maintain appropriate systems and processes for recording and monitoring homecare expenditure across all campuses, working with other Homecare Officers, Finance and Directorate staff and the Chief Technician Medicines Homecare. Further develop these and existing homecare systems and processes to improve efficiency where possible and facilitate suitable reporting.

Co-ordinate processing of all drug homecare treatments across NUH, maintaining a database of patient details, hospital numbers, drugs and treatments.

Reconcile patient details on the homecare database to hospital numbers on invoices, and notify the homecare company if information is incorrect to enable them to correct their records.

Accurately record the relevant invoice details on delivery notes, and prescriptions where supplied, checking information and signature, and check that goods charged for have been delivered, prior to separating the documents for processing and faxing to homecare companies.

Check consolidated invoices against the monthly spreadsheet provided by the pharmacist. Keep a record of prescription numbers against patient details, update database with patient names and hospital numbers, adding new patients when necessary.

Investigate discrepancies with relevant pharmacists, technicians and homecare companies to resolve complex queries and obtain credits where charges are incorrect.

Raise timely orders on the Pharmacy computer system when invoices have been checked.

Process invoices on the Pharmacy computer system, checking prices and contract details, ensuring compliance with the Trusts Better Payments policy. Where discrepancies are found, refer these to the Chief Technician Medicines Homecare and then liaise with relevant homecare companies to resolve.

Check invoices against the invoice summary sheet on the Pharmacy computer system and copy prescriptions to ensure correct details have been entered.

Ensure orders are raised, goods booked in, invoices are processed and drugs booked out to appropriate cost centres on a daily/weekly basis within the same calendar month to ensure accurate matching of finance reports and accurate stock levels.

Book out homecare drugs on the Pharmacy computer system to monthly cost centres or to patient codes, on a daily/weekly basis and to meet month end deadlines.

Check account statements from homecare companies and reconcile invoices from the Pharmacy computer system to the statements. Check invoices on the Finance system and liaise with NUH Finance Department when necessary to ensure invoices are paid promptly.

Check and reconcile monthly invoice listing reports received from homecare companies. Update hospital numbers if incorrect and send appropriate reports to the NUH Finance Department to enable timely reimbursement from Commissioners. Record all data on the Pharmacy Departments medicines expenditure and monitoring shared area to enable senior Pharmacy staff to view value of transactions and Commissioners reclaim amounts.

Liaise with clinical staff who initiates homecare treatment, and Pharmacy Purchasing, NUH Procurement and NUH Finance staff to ensure full records are maintained.

Collate and input key performance data relevant to homecare, including the quantity of invoices and spend per drug, and number of patients. Produce monthly and year end reports to present this information.

Provide accurate and timely information to auditors, as required.

Follow procedure notes for the processing of financial paperwork and make suggestions for process improvements in own work area.

Assist and provide guidance to the Pharmacy Homecare Finance Assistants as required in the understanding and undertaking of their relevant duties relating to homecare processing.

Organise and plan workload to ensure the integrity and timeliness of financial data, and to ensure both financial and operational deadlines are met, liaising with the Chief Technician Medicines Homecare, Homecare Technicians, Specialist Pharmacists and other Homecare Officers and Assistants.

Ensure confidentiality is maintained at all times, for example concerning issues of business sensitivity and patient confidentiality, and ensure that all documentation is stored and disposed of in accordance with Trust procedures.

Provide absence cover for Homecare Finance Assistants, other Homecare Business Support Officers and on occasion purchasing staff, as dictated by need and determined by the Assistant Head of Pharmacy Procurement, Therapeutics, Clinical Trials & Medicines Information Services.

Contact suppliers regarding invoice price queries and negotiate credits where necessary.

Pass a designated section of invoices for payment via the Pharmacy computer system, checking for accuracy of supply, price, VAT and settlement discounts. Check any discrepancies from the expected price by checking the central division drug contract, the local agreement file, price lists and other sources. Refer queries to the Chief Technician Medicines Homecare or Chief Technician Procurement and Formulary support.

Check monthly statements and chase any outstanding invoices.

Ensure segregation of the ordering, receiving, invoicing and payment of specific orders whilst performing these duties.

Participate in Homecare Team meetings to identify and resolve problems and suggest potential improvements to business systems and processes, leading on improvements where required.

Undertake relevant administrative duties as necessary.

Undertake any other duties that may reasonably be required.

Person Specification

Training & Qualifications

Essential

Minimum 4 GCSE's or equivalent at grade A-C (level 4-9), including English and Maths. NVQ Level 3 in accounting or business administration or equivalent, or by demonstration of experience, knowledge and skills at this level relevant to these qualifications

Experience

Essential

Experience of working in a business or office environment Experience of financial processes Good level of knowledge and experience of IT software, in particular strong Excel spreadsheet skills

Communication and relationship

Essential

Proven verbal and written communication skills

Analytical and Judgement skill

Essential

Numerate and able to analyse and present data and take appropriate actions Able to handle sensitive information confidentially

Planning and organisation skil

Essential

able to prioritise and deliver accurate results to deadlines under pressure

Physical skills

Essential

Able to achieve both speed and high levels of accuracy when undertaking financial data tasks, whilst experiencing interruptions Able to use a keyboard for a large part of the day

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