Registration
to be Required for Pharmacy Technicians
by Mary Anna Marshall
Richmond Times-Dispatch
October 20, 2002
Pharmacy technicians will be required to be registered
according to legislation passed in 2001. Final regulations
governing the registration of pharmacy technicians
are currently under review. As provided in the legislation,
pharmacy technicians will have to be PTCB certified
or enrolled in a Virginia Board of Pharmacy approved
training program and pass an exam to be eligible
for registration.
Certification requires that pharmacy technicians
pass the National Pharmacy Technician Certification
Examination (PTCB) a voluntary, national exam, after
which they can use the designation of CPhT. Since
the PTCB’s inception in 1995, over 122,000 pharmacy
technicians have been certified through the examination
and transfer process. To maintain the certification,
technicians will also be required to complete 20
hours of continuing education every two years.
With the registration requirement, pharmacy technicians
will be able to take on new responsibilities, if
directed by the pharmacist. Among activities the
registered technicians will be able to perform are
the entry of medical histories and prescription
information into the computer system, the preparation
of prescriptions, inventory, stocking, unloading
dispensing devices, and taking refill authorizations
from prescribers so long as there is no change from
the original.
Certification will expand the training and duties
of pharmacy technicians, but the technicians will
continue to work under the directions of the pharmacists.
Their expanded duties will allow pharmacists more
time with their patients and a greater ability to
use their clinical training to create programs for
patients. This should also help ensure that medication
mistakes are rare.
The new legislation will have a positive impact
on the consumer’s experience when they visit a pharmacy.
Consumers can trust that the care they are receiving
from pharmacists and pharmacy technicians is being
closely monitored by the Board of Pharmacy.
-Mary Anna Marshall is a certified pharmacy technician
and the Director of the Virginia Institute for Pharmacy
Technicians.
