As the baby boomers enter retirement age and start swelling the ranks of those needing medical care, the demand for practitioners of allied medical services (those who have finished a pharmacy technician course, for example, or pharmacy technician classes) also increases—and apparently, so too the demand for technology solutions and tools.
At the just-concluded 46th American Society for Health System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting and Exhibition in New Orleans, Pyxis unveiled an innovative medication dispensing system that facilitates the better management of patient medications on both small and large scales. The high-speed storage and retrieval system allows pharmacies to improve workflows within the dispensary.
Other technology solutions introduced at the event included scanning and inventory management software, and a new order-review tracking software.
"The needs of hospital pharmacies continue to evolve, and more than ever, technology solutions must help increase safety and lower operating costs," said Tom Leonard, president of Medical Systems at CareFusion.
The observation gave voice to the need to expand the skills and responsibilities of today's pharmacy technicians, especially in areas such as automated dispensing, to protect the safety and security of medication dispensing systems and the integrity of patient information.
In a related development, the United States Public Health Service released a report in January which included a letter from Dr. Regina Benjamin, the U.S. Surgeon General, strongly expressing support for the recognition of pharmacists as integral members in health-care delivery.
The long-overdue recognition is expected to also boost the status of the traditional assistant of pharmacists—the pharmacy technician (usually, a person who has finished a pharmacy technician course or one who has undergone pharmacy technician classes).
The report recommended that:
1. Health leaders and policymakers should further explore ways to optimize the role of pharmacists, in collaboration with physicians or as part of the health-care team.
2. Use pharmacists as an essential part of the health-care team, in collaboration with other clinicians, to improve quality, limit costs, and improve access to care.
3. Recognize pharmacists as health-care providers, an appropriate action given the level of care pharmacists provide.
4. Provide compensation schemes that are appropriate to the breadth of care provided; these compensation schemes are needed to sustain these patient-oriented, quality-improvement services.
Meditec.com, a top portal for online pharmacy technician classes and online pharmacy technician training, also offers medical transcription training and medical billing and coding training—each course providing the critical skills and knowledge needed to address the needs of an aging health-oriented future.
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