Technicians checking technicians

Activities allowed by law to be performed within a licensed pharmacy by a registered pharmacy technician in the preparation of a prescription or order for dispensing or administration may be performed by one registered pharmacy technician, who may be a technician in training and verified by another registered pharmacy technician who may not be a technician in training, working in the same licensed pharmacy, under the following conditions: 1. The licensed pharmacy where the work is being conducted has policies and procedures specifically describing the scope of the activities to be verified through this practice, included in the policy and procedure manual required under section 61-02-01-18. a. Training for the specific activity is reflected in a written policy. b. A record of the individuals trained is maintained in the pharmacy for two years. 2. The pharmacy has a continuous quality improvement system in place to periodically verify the accuracy of the final product, including: a. Recording any quality related events leading up to the final dispensing or administration of the drug prepared. b. Recording any errors which actually reach the patient as a result of these activities. c. Specific limits of acceptable quality related event levels before reassessment is required. d. Consideration must be made for high-risk medications on the institute for safe medication practices (ISMP) list and specific monitoring, review, and quality assurance parameters must be instituted if any of these products are included in the pharmacy's technicians-checking-technicians program. 3. Any error must trigger pharmacist review of the process. This review and subsequent recommendations must be documented. 4. The pharmacy has a system in place to review all quality related events and errors recorded and takes corrective action based on the information to reduce quality related events and eliminate errors reaching the patient. 5. As always, the pharmacist-in-charge and the permitholder are jointly responsible for the final product dispensed or released for administration from the pharmacy.