The Role of Institutional Pharmacy Technicians free essay sample

Medication orders In an institutional pharmacy medication cannot be dispensed without a prescription. Medications will be listed in the patient chart, filled, billed, and then delivered to the patient. The prescription order could be handed directly to the pharmacy, faxed in, sent via the institution computer system, or picked up by the technician from varying sources within the institution. All medication orders must have the patient information including the patients name, room/bed number, hospital id number and date of birth. The medication must also have certain information to be processed such as the name of the medication, dosage, administration, route, a signature from the prescriber, and the date and hour the prescription was written. These orders must be reviewed for completeness by the technicians which still leaves the prescription in an unverified status until the pharmacist can review them as well making them a verified medication order. Institutional and non- institutional Institutional pharmacies fill and verify medication orders while non-institutional pharmacies fill prescriptions that are normally brought in by the patient. We will write a custom essay sample on The Role of Institutional Pharmacy Technicians or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Institutional pharmacies take care of patients within the facility they practice in such as hospitals and nursing homes. Non-institutional pharmacies will fill prescriptions for patients that are outside of the institutions on a regular basis. Technicians that are employed in an institutional pharmacy work with several distribution systems for specific patients while technicians that are employed in a non-institutional pharmacy mostly repackage medications for many different patients. Institutional technicians deal in sterile and aseptic techniques, cytotoxins and chemo drugs, and a variety of automatic dispensing systems (Johnston, M. (with Frank, C. , Luke, R. ), 2006). Patient issues within an institutional pharmacy Pharmacy technicians in an institutional pharmacy do not have a lot of personal contact with the patients. They mainly deal with patient billing and patient information. Technicians could deal with patient issues through participating on fomulary committees and gathering and evaluating patient statistics. Some patient issues that might arise within this type of pharmacy environment could be an allergic reaction to a medication that is being prescribed through a medication order. Because the pharmacy technician did not follow through with the pharmacist and double check the patient information against the medication name the patient could be prescribed a medication that they are allergic to. These issues are would be unique to an institutional pharmacy because they are the ones who obtain the patient information along with the prescription information that is to be issued by the doctor to the patient within the facility. The doctor in this case prescribed a basic medication that the patient happened to be allergic to instead of the compounded mixture of the medication that is less potent and the patient is not allergic to. This mistake can be avoided within the institutional pharmacy if the technician follows procedure and give the pharmacist the medication order for final verification of the prescribed medication so that he can check it against the patient information and the original orders. Institutional pharmacies offer services that move beyond illing prescriptions. They provide consulting and technology services while working with the patient to automate paperwork, aggregate resident data and actionable data used for improving resident care (Remedi, 2010). The institutional pharmacy market is projected to grow revenues from $13 billion in 2007 to $20 billion by 2012. They provide accurate, efficient and cost-effective pharmaceutical care to residents in the face of rising healthcare costs while providing high-quality resident care (Remedi, 2010). Shelbye Farmer-Vitez References: United States Department of Labor. (2010). Occupational outlook handbook,2010-11 edition. Retrieved from http://www. bls. gov/oco/ocos325. htm. Retrieved 4/21/11. Remedi. (2010). Remedi senior care. Retrieved from http://remedirx. com/newsroom/pharmacyoverview. aspx. Retrieved 4/21/11. Johnston, M. (with Frank, C. , Luke, R. ). (2006). The pharmacy technician series: Fundamentals of pharmacy practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Retrieved 4/21/11.