CLINICALLY ORIENTED PHARMACY TECHNICIANS TO AUGMENT CLINICAL SERVICES

The justification for and the training, responsibilities, and contribu tions of two clinically oriented pharmacy technicians are described. A proposal outlining the clinical services being provided by pharmacist s at a 650-bed medical center and the need for technical assistance wa s developed and approved. Two clinical technician positions were creat ed to replace one of two eliminated pharmacist positions. Each of the technicians hired had worked successfully in several traditional pharm acy technician roles. The technicians were trained for specific roles and cross-trained in the basic functions of each other's roles. The te chnicians made rounds with the pharmacists to learn how to evaluate pa tients and interact with physicians and nurses and were required to de monstrate competence in deciding which patients required further evalu ation. One technician focuses on providing direct clinical service sup port, and the other works primarily as a clinical administrative assis tant. Half the technicians' time is spent performing services previous ly performed by pharmacists. In addition, the technicians track outcom es and provide clerical and data-management assistance. The technician s are responsible for screening and tracking approximately 400 patient s per month on well-established services and 400 per month on two new monitoring services. The technicians have helped develop a medication- error tracking program. Clinically oriented, technicians freed up phar macists' time by collecting routine clinical data and managing clinica l projects; through protocol-based screening and outcomes tracking, th e technicians have helped to implement new clinical services and evalu ate existing ones.