The SMH Adult Pharmacy Department Technicians and Assistants
The SMH Adult Pharmacy Department Technicians and Assistants
Profile submitted by: Sunny Gidda on behalf of the SMH pharmacy leadership team
Brief description of role or responsibilities
The pharmacy technicians and assistants are the “backbone” of our pharmacy department. They are responsible for a variety of vital duties including: inventory management, pyxis/wardstock top up, handling narcotic/controlled drugs, mixing/filling all medications in our department, interpreting and entering orders, providing clinical support for our clinical pharmacists, being at the front line of the Fraser Health Authority regional on call program.
Describe how the individual or team made a positive contribution to patient care or their pharmacy department:
With the current significant supply chain challenges our assistants and technicians team work relentlessly to ensure patients can continue to receive their appropriate medication therapy on time.
Our hospital has seen unprecedented growth in terms of patient beds. Our pharmacy assistants have worked hard to continue to meet the demands of our patient care units to ensure medications are available. Our pharmacy technicians are dealing with increased demands in terms of entering orders, filling and mixing medications and providing critical clinical support services.
As with many sites we continue to face staffing challenges (staff shortages and increased absence rates of staff). Our assistant and technician team continually pull together to support each other and the patients we serve.
We are proud to host the Fraser Health Authority regional on call pharmacy program. Our pharmacy technician team have shown great leadership and ability to work to their full scope in order to continue to provide this vital service for the entire health authority.