Legality of technicians’ involvement in medication reconciliation not clear

Abstract

Having pharmacy technicians in hospitals help with the medication reconciliation process is an idea that is gradually gaining supporters. Whether state boards of pharmacy consider this participation legal seems to depend on exactly what the technicians are doing. In Minnesota, the state board of pharmacy made a decision six years ago about one step in the medication reconciliation process: obtaining and documenting a complete list of a patient’s medications on admission to the health care organization. It is “permissible,” the board of pharmacy stated in its minutes from a March 2002 meeting, for a hospital’s pharmacy technicians to obtain and record the medication histories of patients who are being admitted for surgery. The board members’ opinion enabled Fairview Southdale Hospital, in Edina, to start its program of having pharmacy technicians telephone patients for the purpose of recording medication histories. In obtaining the opinion, pharmacy director Carl Woetzel told the state board of pharmacy that the technicians would work under the direction of a pharmacist. No medication history recorded by a technician would be turned into active medication orders before undergoing review by a pharmacist and an attending physician. At no time would a technician assess drug therapy or counsel patients about a medication issue.