Q: What are the duties of a pharmacy technician?
A: Pharmacy technicians perform a wide range of critical tasks to support pharmacists and ensure the safe, accurate, and efficient operation of a pharmacy. Their core duties span preparation, dispensing, administration, and customer service, and vary by setting (retail, hospital, etc.).
Q: What are the core dispensing and preparation duties?
A: These are the fundamental technical tasks:
- Receiving and Processing Prescriptions: Accurately intake prescription requests from patients, doctors, or electronic systems.
- Data Entry and Label Generation: Enter prescription details into the pharmacy software to generate labels and patient information leaflets.
- Counting, Pouring, and Measuring Medication: Precisely count pills, measure liquids, and compound or mix some medications as permitted by law and under pharmacist supervision.
- Inventory Management: Order, receive, and stock prescription and over-the-counter medications and supplies; conduct inventory counts; manage expired drugs.
Q: What administrative and customer service duties do they handle?
A: Technicians are often the primary point of contact:
- Patient Interaction: Greet patients, collect necessary information, process payments, and manage insurance claims and prior authorizations.
- Organization: Answer phones, file paperwork, and maintain patient records in compliance with privacy laws (like HIPAA in the US).
- Customer Service: Address basic patient questions (referring clinical questions to the pharmacist) and help locate over-the-counter products.
Q: How do duties differ in a hospital setting versus retail?
A: Hospital pharmacy technicians typically have more specialized, clinical-facing roles:
- Sterile Compounding: Aseptically preparing intravenous (IV) medications, total parenteral nutrition (TPN), and chemotherapy drugs in a cleanroom.
- Unit Dose Packaging: Preparing individual doses of medication for specific patients and delivery to hospital wards.
- Medication Reconciliation: Assisting pharmacists in compiling patient medication histories upon admission.
- Operating Automated Systems: Managing and restocking complex automated dispensing cabinets on nursing floors.
Q: What advanced or specialized duties can certified technicians perform?
A: With additional training and certification (like the CPhT-Adv or state-specific credentials), techs may:
- Final Prescription Verification: Act as an Accuracy Checking Technician (ACT), performing the final check on dispensed medications before they are handed to the patient (where permitted by law).
- Medication Therapy Management (MTM) Support: Gathering patient information for pharmacist-led reviews.
- Immunization Administration: In some regions, technicians with proper training can administer vaccines.
Q: What is the most important duty across all roles?
A: Above all, a pharmacy technician's paramount duty is to ensure patient safety. Every task from data entry to compounding must be performed with absolute accuracy and attention to detail to prevent medication errors, which is why rigorous training and certification are essential.
For resources on professional certifications and career pathways in fields like pharmacy technology, you can explore information at certilyst.com.