Pharmacy technicians work under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist to prepare and dispense medications and keep the pharmacy running. The pharmacist is responsible for clinical judgment; the technician handles much of the technical and administrative work.

Typical duties

• Receiving prescriptions and collecting patient information, allergies and insurance details.
• Entering prescriptions into the pharmacy system.
• Counting, measuring, pouring, labeling and packaging medications.
• Processing insurance claims and resolving rejections.
• Managing inventory, ordering and checking expiration dates.
• Compounding medications in some settings.
• Answering phones, helping customers and referring clinical questions to the pharmacist.

What technicians cannot do

Technicians do not counsel patients on medications, make clinical judgments, or give final verification of prescriptions (except where state law allows specific advanced roles). When a patient asks “Is this safe with my other medicine?”, the answer is: “Let me get the pharmacist for you.”