Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service

Pharmacist Professional Advisory Committee
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Charter and SOP
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Pharmacy Professional Advisory Committee

Charter and Standard Operating Procedure

       Standard Operating Procedure Manual

I. Mission

The Pharmacist Professional Advisory Committee (PharmPAC) was created by, and is to advise and serve, the Surgeon General and the Public Health Service through the Chief Professional Officer (CPO), on issues relating to the professional practice and the personnel activities, Commissioned Corps (CC) and civil service (CS) of the Pharmacy Category. Working through the CPO, the PharmPAC provides similar advisory assistance, upon request, to the Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) or Staffing Divisions (STAFFDIVs) of the Public Health Service (PHS), and to non-PHS Programs that routinely use PHS personnel.

II. Relationship of the PharmPAC to the United States Public Health Service

In carrying out its responsibilities, the PharmPAC operates in a staff capacity. It does not substitute for line management or in any way exercise the prerogatives of the respective operating programs. Thus, the PharmPAC advises the CPO, who in turn advises the Surgeon General. While PharmPAC members are chosen from the respective USPHS OPDIVs, they neither represent OPDIV management nor speak for the OPDIV. They are knowledgeable professionals who represent a cross section of the interests, concerns, and responsibilities of the professionals in OPDIVs and organizations staffed by PHS personnel.

III. Objectives

The PharmPAC serves in a resource and advisory capacity through the CPO to assist in the development, coordination, and evaluation of activities related to the professional discipline(s) it represents in the PHS with the specific objectives of:

  1. Identifying and facilitating resolution of issues of concern as they relate to the pharmacy category and related civil service professional disciplines.
  2. Assessing PHS personnel needs and assisting in meeting these needs through recruitment, training, utilization, and recognition of officers in the pharmacy category and related civil service professional disciplines.
  3. Developing position papers, statistical reports, and/or guidelines where appropriate, in order to advise and comment on matters relating to the personnel issues and professional practice of the pharmacy category and related civil service professional disciplines.
  4. Promoting the development and utilization of pharmacists by the USPHS and other Government programs.
  5. Promoting cooperation and communication among pharmacists and other health professionals.
  6. Promoting all aspects of the pharmacy category and related civil service professionals throughout the OPDIVs of the PHS.
  7. Providing liaison among professional disciplines within and among PHS components, and providing advice and consultation to the OPDIV Heads and operating programs upon request.
  8. Advocating for best practices within the profession.
  9. Facilitating relationships with professional organizations and academia to promote the linkage between the public health and the professions and disciplines of the USPHS.

IV. Functions

In carrying out its broad mission and objectives, the functions of the PharmPAC shall include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Provide general professional advice and recommendations:
    1. Review and comment on issues referred to the PharmPAC through the CPO by the Surgeon General, OPDIV Heads, and/or STAFFDIV Heads.
    2. Deliberate issues, develop findings, and present recommendations through the CPO to the Surgeon General.
    3. Provide advice on the professional aspects of the Pharmacy category, i.e., new technologies, regulations, curricula, roles, etc.
    4. Provide advice on ethical and professional standards.
    5. Review and provide recommendations concerning proposed or needed changes to appointment standards and professional requirements, e.g. licensure required to maintain high quality staff.
  2. Act as a primary resource for career development:
    1. Advise on CC and CS practices concerning career development.
    2. Advise on operative practices concerning the appropriate/optimum use of personnel designed to best meet PHS needs and the needs of the individuals.
    3. Advise on issues related to PHS promotion practices and, for commissioned officers, assimilation into the Regular Corps for the Pharmacy Category.
    4. Formulate criteria for the selection of candidates for training and/or other career development options.
    5. Identify both continuing and long-term intramural/extramural education needs of the Pharmacy category, and identify and recommend training and/or experience opportunities designed to meet these needs
  3. Provide advice and assistance on staffing issues
    1. Assess and project need for the Pharmacy category staffing levels, both CC and CS, throughout the PHS.
    2. Provide advice on the goals, objectives, and procedures designed to meet the PHS staffing needs and assist in category retention initiatives.
    3. Provide guidance for the recruitment to the short-term student affiliations programs (COSTEP, summer students, etc.).
    4. Develop, and/or review and critique, Pharmacy category-specific PHS recruitment materials, procedures, and programs.
    5. Help establish networks of current, as well as former, PHS professionals, who can assist and facilitate recruitment activities.
    6. Provide guidance to approved PHS "Associate Recruiters" and other recruiters concerning the recruitment of qualified candidates to the Pharmacy category and related civil service professional disciplines.
    7. Assist in the development of orientation materials for newly hired Pharmacy category professionals and provide advice/recommendations concerning orientation programs.
  4. Communicate and encourage appropriate use of awards/recognitions systems:
    1. Identify, establish, and help administer special professional, Pharmacy category specific awards.
    2. Maintain cognizance of the existing CS and CC award programs and opportunities and encourage the nomination of qualified individuals for such awards.
  5. Serve as a communication to link and information resource for the category:
    1. Communicate to the CC/CS Pharmacy category staff and important information concerning professional, ethical, and technical issues.
    2. Encourage individual membership in, and involvement with professional organizations and societies in order to promote open communication with non-federal colleagues.
    3. Ensure distribution of minutes and/or other PharmPAC developed materials to the extent possible and appropriate CC and CS staff.  Ensure the availability of PharmPAC minutes to other PACs and the Office of the Surgeon General through the PharmPAC website.

This list of functions is not all inclusive.  The PharmPAC has the responsibility to identify and add functions as necessary to carry out its objectives.  Such functions shall be in concert with the overall mission of the PharmPAC.

V. Membership

  1. Basic Eligibility Requirements: Members must be full time CC or CS personnel, at the time they are nominated and appointed to the PharmPAC, and meet the eligibility requirements for initial appointment to the Pharmacy category and personnel systems.  In addition, all CC personnel must meet the Office of Force Readiness and Deployment (OFRD) basic readiness standards at the time they are nominated and appointed to the PharmPAC and throughout their term of service on the PharmPAC.
  2. Staff from the Office of the Secretary (OS) and the Office of Public Health and Science (OPHS) may serve on a PAC providing that they recuse themselves from voting on issues and decisions that may have the appearance of a conflict of interest with respect to their duty assignments.
  3. Size of the PAC: The PharmPAC shall have no fewer than 7 and no more than 30 voting members.
  4. Organizational Representation: In order to provide a range of experiences and perspectives necessary for addressing issues before the PharmPAC, every effort must be made to have the broadest representation possible among all agencies that are routinely staffed by the Commissioned Corps Officers of the Pharmacy category.
  5. Geographical Considerations: The PharmPAC will have, as voting members, at least two individuals whose regular duty station is geographically removed by a distance of 75 or more miles from the Washington Metropolitan Area.
  6. Gender and Minority Representation: The PharmPAC will make a concerted effort to include both men and women and racial and ethnic minorities in the composition of its membership.
  7. Personnel system: The PharmPAC will make a concerted effort to include civil personnel in the composition of its membership.
  8. Professional Seniority: The PharmPAC will have as a voting member a minimum of one individual who at the time of appointment to the PharmPAC has less than 5 years of professional experience.
  9. Ex-Officio Members (non-voting): The Chief Professional Officer is an ex-officio members of the PharmPAC [See IX (1)].  The JOAG representative is an ex-officio member of the PharmPAC.  The former chair may serve 1 additional year as an ex-officio member of the PharmPAC [see VII (3)]. The PharmPAC may identify other individuals and request that they serve as ex-officio members.
  10. Liaison Members (non-voting): The PharmPAC may identify individuals to serve in a liaison capacity to provide information or assist with activities, e.g., staff from the Office of the Secretary (OS) or the OASH.

VI. Nomination Process

  1. Annually, the PharmPAC will solicit, through newsletters and other appropriate means, nominations for vacancies on the PharmPAC from all individuals in the Pharmacy category and represented civil' service professional disciplines. Self-nominations will be solicited. The names will be transmitted by the CPO to the nominee's respective OPDIV Head who may endorse the nominee(s) or provide alternate or additional nominations meeting the general representation requirements demonstrated by the original nominees. The OPDIV Head's response will be reviewed by the PharmPAC and CPO who will identify, by name, those highly qualified to fill anticipated vacancies. A final list of nominees will be sent by the CPO to the Surgeon General for selection and approval.
  2. This nomination process shall be conducted so that the final nomination package is available for the Surgeon General's consideration no less than 60 calendar days prior to the expiration of the regular term of the member.
  3. Should the need arise to fill an unexpired tern of a voting member, the vacancy shall be filled through the annual nomination process.

VII. Term of Appointment

  1. PharmPAC members will be selected to serve a 2,3 or 4 year term (each PAC will choose whether to designate 2, 3 or 4 year term in their individual PAC Charters). Terms will be staggered to ensure rotational balance.

  2. Once a member has accumulated a lifetime total of 8 years of service on the PharmPAC, they are not eligible for reappointment. Terms of office may be served consecutively at the discretion of the PharmPAC.

  3. Alternates: Cognizant of the demands of the members' primary work responsibilities and the PharmPAC's need to conduct business, the PharmPAC has the option of establishing procedures to allow each voting member to appoint, and infonn the Chairperson of, a single individual from the same OPDlV who can serve as his/her alternate. Such alternates shall have voting privileges when serving in the place of the primary member. It is the responsibility of fhe primary PharmPAC member to keep the alternate fully infonned and knowledgeable of the PharrnPACs activi:ties. Any OPDIV clearance or approval requirements for travel/per diem will have to be handled within the OPDIY by the primary PharmPAC member. All alternates must meet OFRD basic readiness standards.
  4. Attendance: Any member of the PharmPAC who frequently misses meetings without just cause can, at the discretion of the PharmPAC Chair in consultation with the CPO, be asked to voluntarily resign from the PharmPAC, or the PharmPAC Chair in consultation with the CPO can initiate a request to the Surgeon General to terminate said membership and so inform the OPDIV Head.

VIII. Chairperson

  1. The chairperson will be elected by the voting membership of the PharmPAC.
  2. Term of the Chairperson: The Chairperson will serve a l-year term and may be re-elected for one additional year. The PharmPAC may choose to elect the Chairperson for one 2-year term with no opportunity for re-election to that post. Additionally, each PAC may elect to have a Chair-Elect post so that after one year in this capacity the Chair-Elect automatically hecomes the Chair for a year.
  3. Term of Appointment: If the term of Chairperson coincides with the expiration of that individual's membership on the PharmP'AC, the former Chair may serve one additional year as an ex officio member of the PharmPAC provided the OPDIY Head is informed and concurs with the extension, unless reappointed as a regular member per the provisions of Section (VI).

IX. Chief Professional Officer

  1. PharmPAC Membership: The Pharmacy Chief Professional Officer shall be a non-voting ex-officio member of the PharmPAC.
  2. Relationship with the PharmPAC: All output of the PharmPAC, be it correspondence, reports, minutes of its proceedings, or other, must be transmitted through the CPO who, as he/she may deem appropriate, may provide concurring or non-concurring comments but may not stop or unduly delay such transmittals.

X. Operations and Procedures

  1. The PharmPAC shall develop its own internal operations and procedures (e.g., bylaws). These shall include, at the minimum provisions covering the following:
    1. Operational year: Determine and report to the Surgeon General the day and month chosen as the beginning of its operational year.
    2. Frequency of meeting: Meetings will be held once per quarter at a minimum.
    3. Agenda: A meeting agenda and appropriate background material is to be made available to the members.
  2. Records and Reporting:
    1. Minutes of each PharmPAC meeting will be developed and approved by the PharmPAC members.
    2. Minutes and reports of the PharmPAC will be distributed in accord with Item IV (5)(C) FUNCTIONS.
    3. The PharmPAC must establish a system to maintain a permanent file of the official minutes and reports of the PharmPAC.
  3. Executive Secretary: The Executive Secretary must be a member of the category but is not required to he a voting PharmPAC mernber.
  4. Quorum: A Quorum consists of at least 50 percent of the PharmPAC voting membership. An alternate attending in lieu of the member shall be counted in determining the quorum requirement.
  5. Voting: Where voting is required or appropriate, i.e., election of the Chair, action will be determined by the simple majority of those voting members present.
  6. Committees: Where the PharmPAC elects to establish standing or ad hoc committees, said membership may include non-PharmPAC members provided that the chairman of the committee is a voting member of the PharmPAC.

Page Last Modified on 8/1/2018

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