Pharmacy technician

Wholesale distribution State Health Dept. requirements Not required Same as above Pharmacist Pharmacist Pharmacist Pharmacist Pharmacist Pharmacist/ Pharmacy technician... 

Essentials of Law and Ethics for Pharmacy Technicians Kenneth M. Strandberg... 

A pediatric patient was presented to the emergency room (ER) experiencing seizures for which 150-mg Cerebyx (fosphenytoin anticonvulsant) IV was ordered. The pharmacy technician took the call for Cerebyx and delivered three 10-mL vials of Cerebyx 50-mg PE (phenytoin sodium equivalents) per mL to the ER as a floor stock transaction. A nurse misread the 50-mg PE/mL on the 10-mL container label, making the assumption that the entire vial contained 50 mg PE. The contents of all three vials were prepared for administration. Instead of 150 mg PE, the patient was administered ten times the intended dose, or 1,500 mg PE. The patient later died. The ER staff only discovered the error after the patient s blood phenytoin levels were returned from the laboratory. 

Snell M, ed (2008). Medicines, Ethics and Practice a guide for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, 32nd rev edn. London Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Sweetman SC, ed (2006). Martindale the Complete Drug Reference, 35th edn. London Pharmaceutical Press. 

Medicines, Ethics and Practice a Guide for Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians, 32, July 2008. London Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, 2008. 

Marie is not feeling well, and on examination by her physician, she is admitted to the local hospital. The physician stops by and orders some prescriptions for Marie. He writes an order for the prescriptions on a duplicate form. One is placed in a bin and picked up by a pharmacy technician the other is placed in Marie s chart. Once the order arrives at the pharmacy, a pharmacist enters the order into the computer, and the medication is pulled from inventory to be sent to the floor on the next round of floor deliveries. The next day, this order for Marie s medications, along with all the other medication orders for the patients in the hospital, is printed so that a cart can be filled with that day s medications. A technician fills the bins in the cart, and a pharmacist checks the filled bins. After the bins are checked, the cart is delivered to the floor. That afternoon the clinical pharmacist visits... 

Provides oversight and feedback to pharmacy technicians that ensures quality care and adherence to departmental policies and procedures. 

The behavior-anchored rating scale (BARS) method of performance appraisal is designed more specifically to assess behaviors necessary for successful performance. Most BARS methods use the term job dimension to mean those broad categories of duties and responsibilities that make up a job, requiring development of unique scales for each dimension. Managers often develop BARS in collaboration with employees well versed in the job. An example of how a BARS may look for a community pharmacy technician in dealing with customers is illustrated in Table 10-4. The BARS system lends itself to providing quality feedback, particularly if supplemented with qualitative comments on how to improve. A drawback is the time and effort required to develop an effective BARS appraisal. 

Table 10-7. Community Pharmacy Technicians Practice Functions and Corresponding Weights...

Collins PM. 1999. Pharmacy technician Valuable asset in todays pharmacy. Wash Pharm 41 38. 

Desselle SP. 2005. Job turnover intentions among certified pharmacy technicians. J Am Pharm Assoc 45 676. 

Desselle SP, Vaughan M, Faria T. 2002. Creating a performance appraisal template for pharmacy technicians using the method of equal-appearing intervals. / Am... 

Muenzen PM, Greenberg S, Murer MM. 1999. PTCB task analysis identifies role of certified pharmacy technicians in pharmaceutical care. J Am Pbarm Assoc 39 857. 

Make full use of pharmacy technicians. If you work with capable technicians, use them as fully as the law will allow. One example is never to answer the phone yourself unless it is a prescribers line. Jacobs mentions that no other professionals (e.g., doctors, lawyers, etc.) answer their own phones. 

The types of investments a company makes depend largely on the type of business it is conducting. In pharmacy settings, funds are invested in acquisition of inventory, computer software and hardware, robotics, buildings, and land. Acquiring the resources necessary to employ the appropriate number of pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and other staff also can be viewed as an investment activity. 

Labor expenses will need to be allocated between the prescription department and the rest of the pharmacy. These expenses typically are allocated based on the percent of time spent in the prescription department. Marcie Hawkins, the pharmacy manager at Good Service Pharmacy, estimates that she spends 75 percent of her time in the prescription department. Assume that the employee pharmacist and the pharmacy technicians spend 95 percent of their time in the prescription department, so 95 percent of their wages is allocated to the cost of dispensing. The other workers spend about 50 percent of their time in the prescription department. Using these percentages and the wage information contained in the notes under the Income Statement, the total amount of labor costs allocated to the prescription department is 423,165. 

Labor costs (wages plus benefits) Pharmacy manager = 125,583 (75 percent in prescription department) employee pharmacist = 115,279 (95 percent in prescription department) pharmacy technicians = 103,890 (95 percent in prescription department) and other staff = 241,534 (50 percent in prescription department). 

Daniel Keene will graduate from pharmacy school within the next 2 months. During school, Daniel has worked part time as a pharmacy technician. He has a savings fund of 2,000 and over 130,000 in student loans. What additional information should Daniel have available when planning his personal finances ... 

In his fee calculations, he adds the amount of time he will be spending directly with patients into the cost analysis. In addition to using his hourly salary rate, he includes the cost of his fringe benefits into these salary calculations. Because he also anticipates that his pharmacy technician will assist him with paperwork and phone calls, he considers adding a small percentage of a technician s time into the salary calculations. 

Robert Allen recently earned his certification as a certified pharmacy technician (C.Ph.T.) and has been working as a technician in the pharmacy department for the past 3 years. Robert is rightly proud of his accomplishment and recently has expressed interest in applying for admission to pharmacy school. Today,... 

A direct copy of the order is transported or faxed to the pharmacy, or the prescribers computer entry reaches the pharmacy. The pharmacist or pharmacy technician reads the order and enters it in the pharmacy computer system. If the technician finds a duplicate order, incorrect dose, allergy, or the like, it is documented and called to the attention of the pharmacist during the clinical screening in step 5. 

Organizational structure. It is necessary to develop an internal organization structure that allows pharmacists to focus on the individual patient, exercise clinical judgment, and be supported in a manner consistent with their work. Training and education of pharmacy technicians must be provided to make possible the development of clinical services. Financial resources must be directed toward clinical functions with as much enthusiasm as that shown for distributive functions. 

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