Health System Administration
PGY2 Health-System Pharmacy Administration Residency combined with PGY1 and MS 2 year program at University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics
Program Purpose
University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics offers a 2 year combined Master of Science in Health-System Pharmacy Administration, Pharmacy Practice Residency (PGY1), and Health-System Pharmacy Administration Specialty Residency (PGY2). The purpose of this program is to train future pharmacy leaders. Through the academic program, residents obtain a solid academic foundation in current health care administration issues and management skills. The PGY1 program provides a strong practice foundation with an emphasis on clinical skill development. The PGY2 program provides a broad experience in the management of pharmacy services in an academic medical center including inpatient and ambulatory programs, as well as foundation skills in human resources, leadership, technology, compliance, informatics, operational management, finance, and medication safety and quality.
Graduates of the program will be capable of assuming roles as clinical coordinators, team leaders, pharmacy supervisors, or managers in a variety of pharmacy practice settings including academic medical centers. These are the leaders that will be ultimately assuming senior pharmacy leader and director of pharmacy positions.
Program Educational Outcomes, Goals, and Objectives
The program uses the ASHP Outcomes, Goals and Objectives required for Health-System Pharmacy Administration. The program uses all required Outcomes, Goals and Objectives Other elective outcomes may be addressed as part of the resident's customizable plan.
The summary of the Outcomes, Goals and Objectives selected for the year are included as a print out from PharmAcademic for each resident after planning for the program year.
Program Requirements
The program is offered in 3 parts.
- See the Pharmacy Practice (PGY1) Residency description for detailed information for the first year of the program. Required 4 week rotations include: Orientation, Management, Drug Information, Acute Care-Internal Medicine, Adult Critical Care Selective, Transitions of Care Selective, and Primary Care. Residents have 4 weeks of project time spread out during the year. Residents may then choose electives (4 months) from a wide variety of electives in acute or ambulatory care, and specialty consult areas/ Residents in the HSPA program take Medication Safety as one of their electives their first year.
- The Master of Science in Health-System Pharmacy Administration is offered as a program of the University of Utah College of Pharmacy. The first year course work is pharmacy specific with courses in issues in health care leadership and ethics, finance and accounting, operations management, human resources, research seminar, and practical issues for health system leaders. The second year is mostly electives taking coursework with the masters in health care administration students and in other departments such as Family Medicine (department with masters in public health), Health Education, and Business. Data Analysis and Decision making is required this second year year. Examples of elective courses include: Public Health Policy and Administration, Health Care Financial Management, Health System Administration, Quality Improvement, and Pharmacotherapy Outcomes Research. Other electives are considered with the approval of the Graduate Programs Committee.
- Health-System Pharmacy Administration (PGY2) Residency
Rotations are planned for each resident based on the program requirements, resident's previous experiences, resident's interests, and identified resident needs. A foundational set of experiences are required. The following summarizes the rotation experiences.
Foundational Required Experiences
| Rotation | Primary Preceptor | Suggested Duration |
| Inpatient Pharmacy Operations (including informatics objectives) | Kavish Choudhary | 8 weeks |
| Inpatient Clinical Services | Sonya Ruelle | 4 weeks |
| Ambulatory Care Pharmacy Operations | Russell Ragsdale and Nathan Hagen | 8 weeks |
| Ambulatory Care Clinical Service Development | Ben Berrett | 4 weeks |
| Supply Chain | Sara Bamford | 4 weeks |
| Advanced Institutional | Kavish Choudhary | 4 weeks |
| Budgeting and Financial Services | Linda Tyler | 4 weeks |
| Capstone | Linda Tyler | 4 weeks or Longitudinal |
| Project | Linda Tyler | Longitudinal |
| Longitudinal Supervision (Residents supervise an area of the pharmacy during their second year. Examples of areas supervised include operating room areas and the Moran Eye Center pharmacy.) | Leigh Fritz, Derrick Shepherd | Longitudinal |
| Staffing, Scheduling and Supervision—Inpatient | Kavish Choudhary, William Black, Ashley Bowden | Longitudinal |
| Staffing, Scheduling and Supervision—Outpatient, Discharge Services | Derrick Shepherd, Nathan Hagen | Longitudinal |
Elective Experiences
Electives are arranged based on the resident's interests. This can included experiences in other areas as well as a longer duration in an already scheduled area. In addition, there are many electives for the resident to choose from to gain experience and enhance their interests. Examples of rotations that residents have taken are listed below.
| Rotation | Primary Preceptor | Suggested Duration |
| Drug Policy | Erin Fox | 4 weeks |
| Home Infusion Services | Jamie Doi Slade | 2-4 weeks |
| Reporting and Analytics | Antoine Clawson | 2-4 weeks |
| Specialty Pharmacy | Lonnie Smith and Matthew Rim | 4 weeks |
| Oncology Service Development | Scott Silverstein | 2-4 weeks |
| Academic Administration | Dan Witt | 4 weeks |
| Other electives can be developed based on the resident’s interests. |
Other program requirements
Completion of Goals and Objectives: Residents are required to complete 85% of the goals and objectives as a requirement for completion in the program.
Project: Residents are required to complete a project and develop a manuscript for publication. The residency project can be coordinated with the project requirement of the masters program.
Required Presentations:
Each year in the program, residents are required to do 4 presentation as part of the residency programs.
- Lecture or presentation to pharmacy students as part of a class (traditionally this has been the Health System Pharmacy Management lecture in the Management course)
- Department seminar
- Continuing education presentation
- Project presentation at Mountain States Conference for Residents and Preceptors
As part of the Master’s program, residents are required to do 2 presentations.
- Project defense (fall of second year)
- Project presentation (spring of second year)
Staffing requirements: Residents are scheduled for four staffing assignments per month. During the PGY1 year, residents are assigned to a clinical area and work many of their assignments in that area. In addition, residents have experience working in the central operations area. During the HSPA residency year, residents will be assigned staffing assignments in inpatient pharmacy areas for 6 months of the year and for the other 6 months, residents are assigned in the ambulatory care areas such as the discharge program.
Optional experience: Complete requirements for teaching certificate program. This can be completed over the two years.
Goals and objectives for each rotation: The goals and objectives are assigned for each learning experience. PharmAcademic is used as a tool for managing this process.
Rotation Descriptions: The program has recently been revised to complement the revisions in the MS course work. Rotation descriptions are available online on the website.
For more information contact
Linda Tyler, PharmD
Chief Pharmacy Officer
Linda.Tyler@hsc.utah.edu
(801) 581-2732
