Untitled Notes

Technician Duties:
- Perform tasks that do not require clinical judgment. Duties include:
- Answer the Telephone: Handle basic inquiries not requiring a pharmacist's expertise; triage complex questions to the pharmacist. For example:
  - Can answer: Price of insulin, number of refills.
  - Should direct to pharmacist: Concerns about medication interactions (warfarin/aspirin), missed doses.
- Process Prescriptions: Input written prescriptions or refill requests into the database.
- Gather Patient Information: Collect PHI (Protected Health Information) needed for patient profiles while ensuring patient confidentiality.
- Prepare Prescriptions: Includes counting/pouring medications, labeling, pricing, performing calculations, and compounding.
- Inventory Management: Maintain adequate supply of pharmacy materials like vials and labels.
- Insurance Claims: Prepare and submit medication insurance claims and contact insurance companies for clarification.
- Housekeeping & Maintenance: Clean pharmacy areas and restock machines and other items regularly.
- Compound Products: Prepare sterile/non-sterile medications, including chemotherapy drugs.
- Recalls & Inventory Checks: Monitor for expired or recalled medications, ensuring they are removed from use.
- Direct Patient Assistance: Help locate OTC medications.

Responsible for all tasks requiring clinical judgment.
- Receive oral prescriptions and consult with prescribers regarding medication appropriateness.
- Verify products before dispensing, including recommending OTC medications based on symptoms.
- Supervise pharmacy technicians.
- Manage medication therapy management (MTM) activities.

Controlled Medications: Legend medications require secure handling, including:
- Restricted access: Only pharmacists, technicians, and authorized personnel allowed in pharmacy.
- Security protocols: Lock pharmacies outside of operational hours, verify IDs for regulatory personnel entering the pharmacy.
- Store controlled substances either in locked cabinets or dispersed among other medications.

Pharmacy technicians often assist in medication reconciliation, documenting patient medications and preparing them for the pharmacist's review.
MTM: Technicians identify patients who might benefit from MTM and assist with maintaining accurate medication records.

Medication Adherence: Ensures patients take medication as prescribed:
- Enrollment in automatic refill programs and phone reminders improves adherence.
- Tools/Instruments: Weekly planners (for organizing daily medications), alarms from devices for reminders, etc.

Medical Terms: Understanding them is essential to communication in pharmacy.
- Terms relate to routes of administration, dosage frequency, etc. For example:
- Routes: ad (right ear), po (by mouth), qid (four times daily).
- Dosage Forms: tab (tablet), cap (capsule)

Effective communication is important for patient interaction and with health care professionals. Key aspects to consider:
- Adaptability: Tailor communication styles based on the patient’s understanding.
- Respect and Awareness: Treat all patients respectfully, considering cultural differences in health care beliefs.

Pharmacists must verify all prescriptions before dispensing. Proper workflow in pharmacy areas aids efficiency:
- Intake Area: Where prescriptions are submitted.
- Processing Area: Data entry occurs; it should be distraction-free.
- Dispensing Area: Final check happens; only verified prescriptions are stored here.

Key to maintaining operations; technicians should monitor.
- Ordering: Follow ROP (reorder point) and ROQ (reorder quantity) strategies.
- Receiving: Inspect shipments for accuracy and damage.

Adhere to proper storage conditions based on medication types. For example:
- Room Temperature: 25°C to 30°C.
- Refrigeration: 2°C to 8°C.

Expiration Dates: Identify and document all pharmaceutical products routinely.
Recalls: Establish protocols for removing medications from stock upon an FDA recall.

Regulations governing disposal of potentially hazardous or controlled medications must be followed, often requiring multiple signatures.

Each pharmacy must maintain a library of essential references. Some critical resources include:
- Clinical Pharmacology: For drug interactions and monographs.
- ** ISMP Medication Safety Alerts**: For advice on reducing medication errors.

Federal Statutes: Clarify scopes of practice.
- Controlled Substances Act outlines schedules and regulations regarding controlled substances.
- HIPAA Compliance: Protect patient health information (PHI) with strict guidelines.

Important for ensuring proper dosing and inventory management: common calculations include:
- Dosage Calculations: mg/kg and conversions between systems of measurement.
- Flow Rates: Calculating infusion rates for IV therapy.