NJ Board of Pharmacy approves Wedgewood Pharmacy technician training program

(Swedesboro NJ, August 2, 2007) The New Jersey Board of Pharmacy has approved a 14-module, eight-hour program for training pharmacy technicians at Wedgewood Pharmacy. The program was developed by the company's Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs Department. Upon completion of the program, each technician must complete an examination and demonstrate a high level of competence in all state rules and statutes governing pharmacy, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations and the company's own rigorous quality standards.

The company also requires monthly in-service training for all of its pharmacy technicians. Each year, the company provides a total of more than 800 hours — more than 100 business days — of initial and continuing education to its cadre of technicians. At Wedgewood Pharmacy, which is the largest compounding pharmacy in the U.S. supplying veterinarians, quality control programs are very strict and carefully monitored. For example, a minimum of five licensed pharmacists review every prescription order that is fulfilled.

A pharmacy technician in a large, national pharmacy like Wedgewood may play a variety of roles. According to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, “ Technicians receive written prescriptions or requests for prescription refills from patients. They also may receive prescriptions sent electronically from the doctor's office. They must verify that the information on the prescription is complete and accurate. To prepare the prescription, technicians must retrieve, count, pour, weigh, measure, and sometimes mix the medication. Then, they prepare the prescription labels, select the type of prescription container and affix the prescription and auxiliary labels to the container. Once the prescription is filled, technicians price and file the prescription, which must be checked by a pharmacist before it is given to the patient. Technicians may establish and maintain patient profiles, prepare insurance claim forms, and stock and take inventory of prescription and over-the-counter medications. Formal pharmacy technician education programs [such as those offered by Wedgewood Pharmacy] require classroom and laboratory work in a variety of areas, including medical and pharmaceutical terminology, pharmaceutical calculations, pharmacy recordkeeping, pharmaceutical techniques, and pharmacy law and ethics. Technicians also are required to learn medication names, actions, uses, and doses.”

About Wedgewood Pharmacy
A compounding pharmacy creates customized medications for individual patients in response to a licensed practitioner's prescription. Wedgewood Pharmacy is the largest veterinary compounding pharmacy in the United States, serving more than 20,000 prescribers of animal and human compounds. It is located in Swedesboro, NJ and licensed throughout the United States.

Background: About Compounding Pharmacy
Because every patient is different and has different needs, customized, compounded medications are a vital part of quality medical care.

The basis of the profession of pharmacy has always been the "triad," the patient-physician-pharmacist relationship. Compounding is extremely important to the veterinary community, which often requires more flavors, dosages and potency levels than commercially available medications supply.  

Through this relationship, patient needs are determined by a doctor, who chooses a treatment regimen that may include a compounded medication.  Physicians and veterinarians often prescribe compounded medications for reasons that include (but are not limited to) the following situations:

•  When needed medications are discontinued by or generally unavailable from pharmaceutical companies, often because the medications are no longer profitable to manufacture;

•  When the patient is allergic to certain preservatives, dyes or binders in available off-the shelf medications;

•  When treatment requires tailored dosage strengths for patients with unique needs (for example, an infant);

•  When a pharmacist can combine several medications the patient is taking to increase compliance;

•  When the patient cannot ingest the medication in its commercially available form and a pharmacist can prepare the medication in cream, liquid or other form that the patient can easily take; and

•  When medications require flavor additives to make them more palatable for some patients, most often children and pets.

For additional information, visit the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists' Web site at www.iacprx.org and www.compoundingfacts.org .

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