Pharmacy Technician

Pharmacy Technician

Help VA Careers - Pharmacy

Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional

Controlled Substance

• Documents all controlled substance-related transactions as indicated by VA and DEA guidelines.
• Assures that inventory counts are correct at the time of restocking.
• Ensures that proper handoff occurs when receiving or delivering controlled substances, always assuring that these medications are never left unsecured.
• Reports unresolvable discrepancies to immediate area supervisor for resolution. Assist in investigating, witnessing, and resolving discrepancies.
• Inspects each dosage form dispensed for damage or discoloration and removes damaged or expired products from stock.
• Provides supervisor with name, manufacturer, lot number, and expiration dates of all damaged or expired controlled substances needing to be adjusted in inventory, including when newly opened, sealed containers contain a greater or lesser quantity than noted on the package, so that balance adjustment can be performed.
• Assists with securely packaging all damaged, expired, or returned controlled substances awaiting destruction.
• Complies with all laws, regulations, directives, policies, and procedures applying to the dispensing, storage, transfer, inventory, and accountability of controlled substances.

Community Care Prescription

• Receives faxed, mailed, electronically prescribed, or delivered prescriptions written by Non-VA providers and processes all received prescriptions to include assessment of appropriateness and eligibility, prioritizing urgent prescriptions first.
• Utilizes electronic health record, or other related sites to determine authorization and eligibility of Non-VA Care by the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital.
• Communicates with patients concerning prescriptions received from unauthorized provider visits and handles prescriptions appropriately, whether forwarding to primary care provider, returning to patient, and/or documenting in electronic health record.
• Reviews authorized prescriptions for appropriateness using Pharmacy Technician knowledge, as well as knowledge concerning the national drug formulary and local VA formulary requirements.
• Communicates with Non-VA providers and staff to request clarification of prescriptions or medication changes due to VA formulary and forwards all changes and clarifications to a licensed pharmacist to receive from the Non-VA representative and documents these actions on the prescription or in electronic health record.
• Initiates the non-formulary/prior authorization process with the non-VA provider and records needed documentation in electronic health record.
• Follows up via phone and/or fax with Non-VA Provider regarding initiated communications concerning non-formulary/prior authorization medications, clarifications, or medication change requests frequently, and documents in electronic health record.

Community and Self-Directed Care Telephone Triage

• Assists the Community Care and Self-Directed Care Clinical Pharmacist with inbound and outbound phone calls relating to community and self-directed care that do not require a pharmacists' knowledge.
• Utilizes pharmacy information systems to answer patient or provider questions related to status of their prescription(s), completion date, package tracking, etc.
• Monitors community and self-directed care pharmacy voicemail regularly throughout shift and addresses messages promptly.
• Transfers calls or messages to the Community Self Directed Care Clinical Pharmacist as appropriate.
• Documents phone conversations in electronic health record for future reference if appropriate.

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 0830-1700

Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA

Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)

Telework: N/A

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Functional Statement #: 10241F