Job Description of a Pharmacy Manager

Here is where business meets health care.  Pharmacy managers have an immense amount of responsibilities in the clinical field.  From my experience working with Robert Bosakowski, RPh, MBA, pharmacy manager at Beth Israel Medical Center, pharmacy managers have to keep track of all the drugs that are being imported into the hospital and all the drugs that are currently being used by the whole pharmacy department.  There is the main pharmacy in which the managers have their offices and the main site of dispensing.  Inside the hospital, there are several other sites of dispensing called satellite pharmacies in which all the commonly used drugs are stocked and can be easily brought out to patient floors.  Moreover, there is a new wave of technology called Pixis machines, that act as a vending machines for common drugs such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) and others.  However, many nurses take a bunch of other drugs for their convenience; consequently, there is always a shortage of prescriptions.  Managers have to keep track of those as well.
Of course, there is always a need for that Master of Business Administration degree when it comes to being a pharmacy manager.  New drugs are always being developed, and marketers push very hard for their drugs to be sold to the hospital.  These people target hospitals and other large institutions because these are the places that buy the most products.  Several times a week, marketers often come in with their new line from their company, and they treat the entire pharmacy staff with an expensive lunch.  After they get on the managers' good side, they work their magic and try to sell their product, giving elaborate PowerPoint presentations and long binders-worth of material that need to be looked over.  Managers usually hold long meetings and debates on which new drugs should be bought, which ones those new ones  replace, and which ones can be ignored for the time being.