Pharmacy Technician Final Check

Pharmacy practices in community and hospital settings provide differing products and services. Accordingly, the responsibilities of pharmacy technicians will also vary from practice-to-practice, including the responsibility of final medication checks. A checking policy and procedure specific to your pharmacy provides current and new staff with the information they need to perform the final check, including:

• The types of products they can check;
• The procedure they need to follow for a given product; and
• How they should document the final check

A well-defined final check procedure will ensure a consistent and safe final check practice in your pharmacy.

Yes, all pharmacies who delegate final medication checks to pharmacy technicians must have a specific policy and procedure manual for them. The current pharmacy quality assurance policy should be updated to include the procedure for medication errors on prescriptions checked by a pharmacy technician. The process may be similar to other medication errors, but should also include

• a review of the pharmacy technician checking procedure;
• training requirements if subsequent errors occur; and
• the process for random audits of pharmacy technician accuracy in final checks.

Yes, if you plan to have a pharmacy technician perform final medication checks at a future date, you can preemptively submit a Pharmacy Technician Final Check Application. In Section 1: Establishment Information, omit the pharmacy technician’s name, but indicate that you plan to have a pharmacy technician fulfill a final-checking role in the future.

Also, if your pharmacy plans to have a pharmacy technician overseeing the checking process of other pharmacy technicians in the future, then indicate this on your application.

A prescription record needs to have either the handwritten signature/initials or the electronic
signature/initials of the pharmacist who performed the therapeutic check and approved the prescription for filling. Any initials that are automatically generated do not fulfill this requirement. A prescription record must include the signature/initials of the person filling the prescription, the person completing the final check, and the pharmacist performing the therapeutic assessment and filling approval.

This section refers to recordkeeping for final checks that are done by a pharmacy technician. The final checks may include regular prescriptions, compliance packs, refill of counting machine canisters, sterile product preparations, etc. The documentation of the final check may differ depending on the product. For each product type indicate what documentation is required. Record keeping of documentation for any pharmacy technician re-validation or audits would be listed within Qualifications and Training and/or Quality Assurance sections.

All prescriptions require both a technical and therapeutic check including new, refill, and logged prescriptions. Logged prescriptions must also be checked when they are filled.

The pharmacist is responsible for

• reviewing all prescriptions for therapeutic appropriateness and patient safety; and
• conducting medication counselling or providing drug information to all patients.

When a prescription is being logged or placed on file, both the technical and therapeutic check must be done. A technician can perform the data check to ensure all the information has been entered correctly; however, the pharmacist must review the prescription from a therapeutic perspective before it is logged.

Both the technician and pharmacist must document their checks either in a written or electronic format. For the safety of patients, no prescription should be released without confirming that both the therapeutic check by the pharmacist and technical check by a pharmacist or technician is complete.

When a logged prescription is filled and dispensed, a technical and therapeutic check must be conducted again. The technician who performed the initial technical check when it was logged or put on file cannot perform the technical check before releasing the medication to the patient. The technical check should be done by either another trained pharmacy technician or a pharmacist. If there is no process to determine or verify who did the technical check on the prescription when logged, then a pharmacist must complete both the technical and therapeutic checks of all processed logged prescriptions.

Independent double checks in pharmacy practice are an effective process to reduce the risk of a medication incident.

Pharmacy technicians are recognized under the Regulation to The Pharmaceutical Act and can be listed as such. As Pharmacy Technicians are not registered in Manitoba it would be inappropriate to denote them as Registered Pharmacy Technician.

No, the CPhM reviews and approves the technician final check application provided that the quality assurance processes outlined satisfy the requirements for adequate staffing, appropriate pharmacy workflow, checking policies and procedures, pharmacy technician qualifications and training, record keeping, and quality assurance.  It should be noted that the CPhM does not review the Policy and Procedure Manual, it is the responsibility of the pharmacy manager to ensure the policy and procedure manual reflects compliant practice.  A store specific Pharmacy Policy and Procedure Manual must be maintained and updated by the pharmacy manager and reviewed with staff regularly.

If there is a change in pharmacy manager from the person who received the approval notice for the Pharmacy Technician Final Check Application, the new pharmacy manager must notify the CPhM and confirm that they will continue with the final check program in the pharmacy. Please email registration@cphm.ca to confirm.