7.2 The Roles of a Retail Pharmacy Technician

The ratio of pharmacy technicians to pharmacists allowed per shift differs in each state (depending on the laws of each state’s board of pharmacy), and so do the exact roles and experiences of the technicians. In smaller community pharmacies, technicians often engage in prescription filling as well as clerical and retail activities. Pharmacy sales clerks without technician training, certification, and experience may be limited to customer contact, cashiering, and inventory control functions.

The certified pharmacy technician has varied days and may spend time directly with customers, entering new and refill prescriptions into the computer, filling and labeling prescription orders, reconciling insurance claims, stocking drugs, or checking inventory levels and drug expiration dates. Typically, the technician is juggling several different tasks at once, with each task requiring due diligence to ensure accuracy. The variety of different jobs helps sharpen one’s mental acuity, and it may minimize the risk of serious medication errors if technicians can focus well and shift from one task to the next without being distracted.

A pharmacy technician may also be involved in simple nonsterile compounding (also known as extemporaneous compounding), in which the technician prepares non-injectable, not-commercially-available medications specifically for a patient’s immediate need. These tasks may be as simple as mixing three or four commercially available ingredients into a prescribed mouthwash. Or they may involve more sophistication, training, and equipment to compound a cream or ointment.

A list of a technician’s general tasks can be seen in Table 7.1, but these duties fluctuate, depending on a facility’s approved policies and procedures.

In addition to assisting in customer service and prescription filling, the pharmacy technician is involved in the business operations of the community pharmacy, including handling insurance processing and charge-backs; selling nonprescription products, dietary supplements, and supplies; ordering and receiving the drug inventory; and organizing and stocking shelves. The processing of prescription claims through insurance will be covered in Chapter 8, and the inventory control responsibilities will be discussed in Chapter 9. Lastly, the pharmacy technician is expected to help maintain a clean work environment by vacuuming the pharmacy restricted area, cleaning counters and counting trays, bundling and removing trash, and securing the disposal of patient-specific information. Counters also need to be sanitized.

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The pharmacist and technician work together as a team to provide customer service as well as efficient and safe dispensing of medications.

A community pharmacy’s regulations are typically explained during an on-the-job training program for new pharmacy technicians and in a written policies and procedures manual. The training program or manual not only reflects the requirements of the pharmacy’s own guidelines, but also relevant state laws and regulations for a safe and effective operation. It is important for the pharmacy technician to understand and learn well these policies, procedures, and laws for various types of prescriptions.

Table 7.1 Key Dispensing Duties in the Community Pharmacy

  • Greet customers at the pharmacy counter or drive-through window, and receive written new or refill prescriptions

  • Answer the telephone and refer call-in new or refill prescriptions or transfers to the pharmacist

  • Update patient profiles, including patient demographics, drug use, allergies, and health conditions

  • Clarify and resolve questions about a prescription (name, directions, and so on) with the prescriber’s office

  • Scan and/or enter new prescriptions (or refill requests) into the patient profile

  • Enter and/or update billing information for third-party reimbursements

  • Submit prescription claims online for medication reconciliation and insurance adjudication (see Chapter 8)

  • Refer to a pharmacist any medication contraindications, and drug and allergy interactions

  • Resolve eligibility or prescription processing issues

  • Calculate prescription quantity and days’ supply for accurate billing

  • Retrieve and count drug products from restricted storage for prescription filling

  • Reconstitute, package, and/or repackage products as needed for prescriptions

  • Prepare extemporaneous, nonsterile compounds when necessary

  • Select medication containers and affix labels

  • Seek final verification by the pharmacist

  • Store completed prescriptions for future patient pickup

  • Return stock bottles to their proper storage locations

  • Retrieve medications for patient pickup

  • Offer a medication counseling opportunity with the pharmacist to the patient

  • Distribute labeled medications with reminders of label directions

  • Accept and process payments and copayments for the prescription(s) and in some cases for OTC drugs, supplements, and retail items

  • Handle cash register, change, and credit processing responsibilities

  • Resolve refused insurance payments

  • Stock shelves

  • Assist in inventory management

  • Assist in technology management

  • Assist in business functions

  • Help keep the prescription filling area clean, organized, and tidy