The Pharmacist Chooses
Posted:
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
Category:
Pharmacy Technician Training
In the movie Fiddler on the Roof, the main character Tevye sings, “If I were a rich man, ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum. All day long I’d biddy biddy bum…”
One might imagine that a pharmacist in search of a better practice would be singing (ala Tevye) the same, too. But since the pharmacy business isn’t big on singing but on serving, the pharmacist is better served wishing for the best assistant around. Enter the pharmacy technician.
What should the pharmacist look for in his or her pharmacy technician? Straight from the medicine cabinet, some off-the-counter attributes:
- The pharmacy technician must have the best pharmacy technician training. You can’t have someone from Snake Oil Pharmacy here. For best results, think Meditec.com.
- The pharmacy technician should know how to fill a prescription—without asking for the pharmacist’s help on every other prescription.
- The pharmacy technician must know how to do medical inventory, and stock taking, and ordering drugs. One who cannot find where the Tylenol is should probably do motorcycle maintenance instead.
- The pharmacy technician must know how to deal with insurance claims. Well, probably not too much. Otherwise, the pharmacist will end up with an insurance agent not a pharmacy assistant.
- Finally, the pharmacy technician must be willing to make day-to-day enquiries on behalf of the pharmacist. If he is unable to, there’s always medical office assistant training (or medical billing and coding training) for him. If, however, he won’t, there’s always the door.
