What Does a Pharmacy Technician Do?
I have been writing articles on why and how becoming a pharmacy technician, however, many recent feedback has made me realize I left out the obvious. What is it that pharmacy technicians do in a pharmacy? A lot of people figure they help the pharmacist enter prescriptions and count pills. That is true for an outpatient pharmacy, also called a retail pharmacy, but there are lots of roles for pharmacy technicians in healthcare. The others of this informative article will list various kinds of pharmacy settings and the roles that pharmacy technicians have in these settings https://www.helios-apotheke-hannover.de/.
Community/Retail Pharmacy:
I have worked retail, and I favor other settings; however, it’s where a large percentage of pharmacy technician jobs are found. What a pharmacy technician can perform is set by the state they work via state laws and rules. Generally speaking, technicians cannot provide clinical information to patients or be the final check for prescriptions. In some states, technicians are allowed to supply information on over-the-counter (OTC) medication (ie, medications that not need a prescription, such as for instance, acetaminophen and ibuprofen). Pharmacy technician tasks include, but are not limited to:
• Collecting patient information (insurance and personal information as needed)
• Entering and processing prescriptions in the computer system
• Filling and selling prescriptions
• Requesting refills from doctor offices for patients
• Compounding medications which are not commercially available
• Ordering medications
• Restocking shelves
• Answering the phone
• Dealing with insurance companies on approving payment for several medications
• Maintaining the money register and conducting accounting functions
Hospital Pharmacy:
There are lots of different roles for pharmacy technicians in a hospital pharmacy. I understand this sort of pharmacy best since this is where most of might work has been. The most typical are technicians who work in the central pharmacy. In addition we’ve decentralized techs, sterile compounding techs, billing techs, OR techs, narcotic techs, database techs, automation techs, team lead techs, and buyer techs. These technicians all together perform the following tasks, but not limited to: https://sonnen-hannover.de/
• Filling new orders, this includes a number of medications from oral medications to specially prepared sterile compound medications (including chemotherapy meds)
• Answering the phone
• Tubing medications (if the pharmacy includes a pneumatic tube station)
• Preparing medications for delivery
• Delivering medications
• Assisting floor pharmacists with medication histories
• Assisting floor pharmacists with IV drip checks
• Handling missing dose calls
• Billing medications where nurse charting does not bill
• Maintaining the pharmacy database
• Restocking operating rooms and anesthesia trays with appropriate medication
• Dispensing and tracking all controlled substances through the entire hospital
• Maintaining automation equipment [automated dispensing cabinets that store medication on nursing units, automatic fill systems (typically called Robot-Rx)]
• Purchasing of medication and supplies needed in the pharmacy
• Leading and managing the technician workforce, including upkeep of schedules
Long-Term Care Pharmacy:
I have worked at a couple of long-term care pharmacies, and I believe it is a good place to be always a technician. They typically employee plenty of techs because the task load lends itself to plenty of technician tasks. These pharmacies give you the medication needs for nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and psychiatric facilities. The conventional pharmacy is situated in a warehouse. It does not have an open pharmacy for individuals to come quickly to; they receive orders by fax and deliver all medications via couriers or drivers to facilities. The oral medication is filled in blister packs (cards of 30 tabs that are accustomed to provide a 1 month supply of medication), or some other mechanism offering the facility with an extended amount of medication doses which can be safely and cleanly kept until doses are due. Pharmacy technician tasks include, but are not limited to: https://www.mnl168.net/
• Filling new and refill orders (different from hospital because of the amount of doses provided)
• Processing new order and refills coming through the fax machine
• Order entry of prescriptions and printing of labels for fill techs
• Sterile compounding of medications (although there aren’t as many sterile compounded medications as a hospital, there are still enough that most long-term care pharmacies have a couple of techs specialize in sterile compounding
• Billing medications to homes
• Controlled substance dispensing and documentation
• Ordering medications and supplies
• Restocking medications which can be returned which can be still suited to reuse.
Home Infusion Pharmacy:
These pharmacies primarily take care of patients that want some form of IV or other non oral medication, and want to receive the therapy at home (hence the name home-infusion). I have worked in a home-infusion pharmacy. As a technology I’d plenty of experience in sterile compounding, and found my self in virtually any position that needed a IV room tech. Pharmacy technician tasks include, but are not limited to: https://soundcloudmp3.cc
• Compounding sterile preparations in the clean room
• Preparing supplies related to sterile medication administration for delivery
• Billing medications sent to patients home
• Coordinating deliveries of medications with patients
• Entering orders in the pharmacy order entry system
Nuclear Pharmacy:
No, I haven’t worked in a nuclear pharmacy (I am sure you were staring to consider I acquired around a great deal, but I have been around in pharmacy for around 17 years). I have some friends who work in a nuclear pharmacy. The hours are interesting; they usually come in at about 3 AM and work until about noon. These kind of pharmacies make radioactive compounds and they must be made in a way that whenever they are sent to the hospital or clinic administering them, that the dose has degraded to a particular amount. Without going into too much detail, these medications have short half-lives. So they’ve to time the compounding of the item with the full time it will take to provide the medication and the full time the patient is to receive the dose. The work pays well, but as imaginable, there are not a huge amount of these positions available. Pharmacy technician tasks include, but are not limited to:
• Preparing radioactive products
• Cleaning and preparing sterile compounding areas
• Entering orders to the pharmacy system
• Coordinating dose due times with deliveries and preparation
• Billing products to hospital or clinic
Health Plans/HMO Pharmacy Group:
I saved this 1 for last since it is a lot different. Most healthcare plans have a pharmacy department. They manage the pharmacy advantage of the health plan. I have caused my companies health plan and have spent sometime with the pharmacy department. Pharmacy technician tasks include, but are not limited to: https://www.skyceram.com/
• Answering phone calls and providing support for patients on the pharmacy benefit
• Reviewing prior authorization requests
• Providing support to physicians and drug companies for information requests
• Supporting the pharmacists in the department with database and projects as needed
As you can see, pharmacy technician roles can be quite diverse. The best advice I could offer you is to figure out what setting you’d most want to work in and obtain some experiential hours because setting. I are finding that the sort of pharmacy you train in is typically the sort of pharmacy you end up working in.