Pharmacy Techs in ED

Altra, BSN, RN · Aug 8, 2012

Our ER pharmacist sometimes fulfills this role. If techs are going to be responsible for doing this for all ED patients, though ... I would take advantage of the opportunity to get this function out of triage.

CrashED · Aug 9, 2012

We have pharm techs in our department and have for a while now. Our techs do medication recs once the patient is placed in a room. It has really assisted in getting appropriate med lists, as they contact the pharmacy (community) and get proper updated lists sent right to us. They also help with some teaching and gopher meds which we may run out of in the dept! We initially had them seeing everyone but found that triage assessing was leading to a waste of resources due to walk outs etc.

libran1984, ASN, RN · Aug 10, 2012

Our ED pharmacist only reconciles the medications upon hearing a pt will be admitted. I mean... is reconciling someone's list of 25 meds when they're only a treat 'em and street 'em scenario worthwhile ? Or am I missing something?

mmutk, BSN, RN, EMT-I · Aug 12, 2012

Hello,
We're getting ready to implement the use of pharmacy techs in our ED with ALL patients. We already have techs who come in and verify meds on patients being admitted, but we'll soon have techs doing all patient meds. We're having conversations about the best way to have this flow...do the techs come to triage and do it, does the nurse do triage, then tell the tech...We'll only have 2 techs in a 60 bed ED...
So, do any of y'all use pharmacy techs or people to do med recs separate from triage? If so, what is your flow?

JCAHO says med recs need to be done on ALL patients seen in the inpatient or outpatient setting. Sure is expensive to pay a pharmacist to do med recs, I would think you could hire an admit RN to do this.

chansen · Aug 13, 2012

I would think you could hire an admit RN to do this.

Or a rhesus monkey.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Aug 13, 2012

JCAHO says med recs need to be done on ALL patients seen in the inpatient or outpatient setting. Sure is expensive to pay a pharmacist to do med recs, I would think you could hire an admit RN to do this.

A Pharm Tech is not the Pharmacist.

A Pharmacy technician, also sometimes known as a pharmaceutical technician, performs pharmacy related functions, generally working under the direct supervision of a licensed pharmacist or other health professional or other health professional.

The professional requirements to become a pharmacy technician vary across jurisdictions, but generally

entail knowledge and skills in pharmaceutical services as obtained through formal training.

Generally, completion of high school is needed to be eligible to become a pharmacy technician, but a university degree is not required. Pharmacy technician training programs are mostly offered by technical colleges and community colleges, and also sometimes by the military, some hospitals, proprietary schools, or through online or distant learning (correspondence schools).

Areas of study may include relevant laws, pharmacy and healthcare ethics, retail and hospital pharmacy practice, medical terminology, human physiology and diseases, alternative medicine, pharmacotherapeutics, customer care, retail and hospital software systems, inventory management, and infection control.

Practical training, such as completing an internship in a pharmacy, is also often required as part of training for employment as a pharmacy technician.

They actually cost slightly less that having a RN in most cases...approx $35,000...in my part of the country. A Certified Tech (not required) will make slightly more.