Increasing pharmacy productivity by expanding the role of pharmacy technicians

Efforts to meet growing clinical and distributive demands without increasing pharmacy staff are described. Real and expected increases in demands for services led pharmacists at a cancer center to seek ways of accommodating those demands within budgetary limits. Growth in the distributive workload was interfering with clinical consultation work. Research studies by the medical staff were resulting in complex dosage calculations and time-consuming compounding. Increasing requests for clinical services had to be met without compromising distributive services and teaching responsibilities and without raising costs. A plan of action was approved that included the use of a written test and a training manual to allow the hiring and retaining of skilled pharmacy technicians qualified to assume greater responsibilities. Technicians were assigned to enter drug orders into the computer, check other technicians, and dispense certain drugs. Greater use was made of commercially prepared i.v. solutions, and the floor stock was expanded. A comprehensive quality control program was concurrently put in place. The larger role for technicians not only enabled the pharmacy department to increase its distributive workload dramatically but reduced pharmacy medication errors and provided more time for clinical pharmacy practice. The number of pharmacist and technician full-time equivalents increased by only 1.5 in each category between 1985 and 1990. By making more use of pharmacy technicians, a pharmacy department was able to meet escalating demands for services with only a minor increase in personnel.