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A pharmacy technician certification can help you start a great career working as a pharmacy technician. One of the places you can work as a pharmacy tech is in a compounding pharmacy. Learn more about what a compounding pharmacy is and what a compounding pharmacy technician does below.
What is a Pharmacy Technician?
A pharmacy technician is someone who assists a pharmacist at a pharmacy. A pharmacist is in charge of making prescriptions, and they often need help with customer service and other administrative tasks. Pharmacy technicians can perform duties like collecting patient information, labeling prescriptions, answering phone calls, billing for prescriptions, and more. Their exact job duties depend on the particular pharmacy where they work.
Many people who want to become a pharmacy technician choose to attend a pharmacy technician school or pharmacy technician training program. This will help them prepare for their future job whether they work in a retail pharmacy or a compounding pharmacy.
What is a Compounding Pharmacy?
A compounding pharmacy is a pharmacy that makes custom medications or custom doses for patient prescriptions. Every pharmacy used to be a compounding pharmacy, but then, mass manufacturing made it easier to produce medications on a larger scale. However, compounding pharmacies still exist for those that need a more custom prescription. For example, compounding pharmacies may be used for those that have a specific allergy to something that may normally come in a medication. With a compounding pharmacy, the pharmacist can put together a custom prescription without that allergen.
Working in a compounding pharmacy is slightly different than working in a retail pharmacy. It is different for the pharmacist as well as the pharmacy technician. You can learn more about some of the job duties for a pharmacy technician in a compounding pharmacy if you read on.
Compounding Pharmacy Technician Duties
Now that you understand better what a pharmacy technician is and what a compounding pharmacy is, you can learn about what it is like to work as a compounding pharmacy technician. Below, you can learn more about the job duties of a compounding pharmacy technician.
- Package and Label Medications – A large part of a compounding pharmacy technician’s job is to package and label medications. This requires a general knowledge of pharmacy and attention to detail because a mislabeled prescription could be dangerous for the patient.
- Keep Record of Medications – Another job duty of a pharmacy tech working in compounding is to keep good records. They will have to keep records of different medications for particular patients as well as maintaining records of the stock of drugs and more. This is a crucial job duty that helps the pharmacist out a lot.
- Work with Insurance and Medical Providers – As a pharmacy technician at a compounding pharmacy, you will have to be able to work with insurance providers and medical providers. You will bill insurance providers and follow-up with these providers if necessary. You will also need to work with doctors and medical providers to double-check prescriptions or ask necessary questions. It is essential for pharmacy technicians to be professional enough to work with these different people.
- Provide Great Customer Service – Compounding pharmacy techs probably do not do quite as much with customer service as retail pharmacy technicians, but it is still important that they are able to provide great customer service. They will assist patients in picking up their medications by taking their information and verifying the prescription. They will also need to be able to answer patient questions or direct the patient to the pharmacist for more technical questions. They will need to stay calm and polite with customers no matter the situation.
- Lab Duties – As discussed above, a compounding pharmacy creates specific medications customized for patients. That means a pharmacy technician who works at a compounding pharmacy will have a few different job duties than that of a pharmacy technician working in a normal retail pharmacy. A compounding pharmacy technician may have duties related to helping the pharmacist make the prescriptions. They could stock certain supplies, clean the area, or even compound certain prescriptions with the help of a pharmacist.
Also read: What’s the difference between a pharmacy technician and a pharmacist?
Whether you want to be a compounding pharmacy technician, a retail pharmacy technician, or a hospital pharmacy technician, getting your pharmacy technician certificate in Miami could really help you out. Pharmacy technician school can prepare you to be able to complete all the job duties of a pharmacy technician easily. You will also learn a bit about pharmacology and more. Check out the FVI website to learn more.
For more information about graduation rates, the median debt of students who completed the program, and other important information, please visit our website:
Sources and References:
- https://fvi.edu/pharmacy-technician/
- https://fvi.edu/Blog/what-courses-will-you-take-in-a-pharmacy-technician-program/
- https://woman.thenest.com/job-description-compounding-pharmacy-technician-14671.html
- https://fvi.edu/Blog/things-must-know-as-a-pharmacy-tech/
- https://fvi.edu/Blog/prepare-for-a-pharmacy-technician-career-in-the-retail-industry/
- https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Compounding_Pharmacy_Technician/Hourly_Rate
- https://fvi.edu/differences-between-a-pharmacy-technician-and-pharmacist/
