Medication Reconciliation Pharmacy Technician

Medication Reconciliation Technician

When you join the growing BILH team, you're not just taking a job, you're making a difference in people's lives. Beth Israel Lahey Health and Mount Auburn Hospital are devoted to consistently promoting a culture of Wellbeing, Empathy, Collaboration, Accountability, Respect, and Equity as outlined in our organization's WE CARE values which can be reviewed here. The Medication Reconciliation Technician plays an integral role in helping to prevent patient medication errors caused by inaccurate or incomplete information in the medical record. Under the supervision of a pharmacist, and according to departmental policies, procedures and guidelines, the Medication Reconciliation Technician will assist the healthcare team in obtaining an accurate medication history by interviewing patients and consulting with their outpatient pharmacies.

Job Description: Pharmacy Tech III.MAH

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

1. Refills Pyxis Medstations with unit dosages from medication profiles and delivers meds to patient units or Pyxis Medstations.
2. Ensures all medications, admixtures, or other dispensed products from the pharmacy are properly labeled and checked before delivery.
3. Performs inventory maintenance upon refill as required (e.g. Pyxis Medstation inventory check, expiration date checks, quality assurance, routine Talyst inventory and expiration date checks, etc.)
4. Performs routinely scheduled rounds to nursing units to deliver and pick up medications in a timely and accurate manner.
5. Performs inspection of medication rooms to ensure general cleanliness and identify any issues that need to be resolved including Pyxis maintenance and refrigerator temperature excursions.
6. Assists with receiving daily orders from the wholesaler and other vendors and communicates any issues to the Pharmacy Supply Chain Specialist.
7. Compounds bulk stock solutions and other non-sterile mixtures.
8. Pre-packages bulk medications and bulk liquids into unit-dose packaging for dispensing to patients or refilling Pyxis Medstations.
9. Ensures all pharmacy-managed medication trays and kits are appropriately filled and expiration dates are checked for easy exchange.
10. Ensures the proper handling of hazardous medications and products including receiving, labeling, packaging, transport and delivery by following proper policies and procedures.
11. Performs calculations for dosage volumes, unit conversions, admixture volumes, and other required calculations for the preparation and validation of all sterile and non-sterile compounding.
12. Prepares stock solutions and other extemporaneous compounding of non-sterile hazardous medications by following proper policies and procedures.
13. Prepares the clean room and sterile products areas for daily use by restocking appropriate supplies, ensuring proper placement and movement of materials and performing daily, weekly and monthly cleanings as scheduled and as needed to reduce microbial contamination.
14. Completes and maintains all personnel qualification competencies required for compounding personnel including: Donning, Doffing & Hand Hygiene, Cleaning & Disinfection, Aseptic Technique, Proper use of Primary Engineering Controls (PEC), Gloved-Fingertip Sampling and Media-Fill Testing.
15. Continuously monitors and documents the humidity and temperature of the clean room and sterile products areas to ensure compliance.
16. Prepares intravenous admixtures (hazardous and non-hazardous) and other sterile compounds timely and accurately while following clean room policies and procedures.
17. Complies with Universal Precautions and Aseptic Technique and Handling of Hazardous Chemicals guidelines; wears appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) as required.
18. Ensures adequate stock of sterile equipment, pharmaceutical equipment, and pharmaceuticals in the pharmacy, medication areas, and automated pharmacy systems.
19. Properly disposes of medications (including oncology medications), hazardous substances, sharps, papers with protected health information, and other items within the pharmacy.
20. Assists the pharmacist with the handling of telephone calls and subsequently triages calls appropriately.
21. Assists pharmacist to prepare and fill medications by utilizing the Epic system.
22. Maintains effective communications with department directors, managers, pharmacists, and department personnel.
23. Identifies process improvements and communicates these in staff meetings or to supervisors as needed.
24. Participates in the monthly reviews of all medication care areas and reports any violations.
25. Documents all quality assurance and quality improvement information in the department's database, as needed (e.g. Simplifi).
26. Ensures general cleanliness and appearance of the pharmacy areas.
27. Assists in the training and orientation of new technicians to departmental standards, policies, and procedures.
28. Ensures quality standards for the department.
29. Abides by all hospital and departmental policies.
30. Performs any other duties and responsibilities as needed by the pharmacy department.

Lead Quality and Compliance Technician

1. Leads projects related to the design, implementation, maintenance, and improvement of processes and procedures that uphold safety, quality and compliance in collaboration with members of the pharmacy department.
2. Evaluates departmental and hospital policy and practice compliance with regulatory agencies (e.g., Joint Commission) as well as state and federal laws, rules and regulations, while maintaining knowledge of such laws.
3. Maintains quality and compliance dashboard and monitors activity to identify areas for improvement.
4. Maintains controlled substance accountability throughout the medication use process (e.g., ordering, receiving, storage, distribution, administration, returns, and wasting) and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements throughout the Hospital by executing audits and proactive monitoring strategies.
5. Serves as the point of contact person when loss or diversion of controlled substance is suspected.
6. Responsible for review and record retention of controlled substances.
7. Serves as the point person for the Biennial inventory by scheduling, assigning areas to participating staff, and gathering data to present.
8. Works collaboratively with other department leaders and staff to review events, develop corrective action plans, and provide education on best practices.
9. Execute a comprehensive auditing program for established practices and applicable regulatory standards (e.g. joint commission, controlled substances, etc.).
10. Conduct random audits to address areas of high-risk institution wide.
11. Investigate suspected or confirmed event of diversion generated from area auditing and protocols.
12. Work with the Pharmacy Drug Diversion Taskforce to improve areas where deficiencies have been found.
13. Oversee automated dispensing machine (ADM) inventory and proper inventory counts are being performed.
14. Ensure timely resolution of discrepancies as supported by departmental policy and procedure.
15. Conduct audits of personnel after performing medication management activities.
16. Report findings to leadership and make recommendations for action or follow-up with staff.
17. Conduct staff training as necessary.
18. Create and discuss presentations to department and hospital committees as requested.
19. Performs any Pharmacy Technician duties and responsibilities as required by the Pharmacist and Pharmacy Department and occasional staffing Hematology/Oncology Technician.

Prepares antineoplastic and other hazardous agents timely and accurately while following clean room policies, procedures, and other safety guidelines.

Utilizes proper PPE and closed system transfer device (CSTD) as needed.

Conduct routine cleaning, disinfecting and decontamination activities as needed per policy and schedule.

Complies with the Hazardous Drug Spill Management Policy and able to respond to hazardous drug exposure.

Utilizes the Powered Air Purifying Respirator (PAPR) as needed for cleaning activities to reduce inhalation risk.

Assists in training staff and students as needed.

Assists with creating and reviewing training modules.

Overnight Technician

Assist pharmacist by preparing medications for refill/restock to Pyxis Medstation or patient specific.

Independently coordinates delivery of medications to units and checks for expired or damaged medications.

Identifies discontinued medications or discharged patient medications and returns to pharmacy for proper handling.

Performs quality control checks on Pyxis Medstations to ensure fill is accurate and reports findings.

Assists with conducting monthly nursing unit audits, documents findings and communicates issues to Supervisor.

Identifies controlled substance discrepancies, independently resolves issues utilizing Pyxis reports and communicates findings to Drug Diversion Taskforce.

Complies with the Hazardous Spill Management Policy.

Assists the Pharmacists in identifying, troubleshooting and resolving any technology issues.

Assists with quality improvement initiatives and special projects.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Required

1. High school education with ability to read pharmaceutical orders, etc.
2. Current pharmacy