PRACTICE REPORTS Pharmacy technician 2054 Am J Health-Syst Pharm—Vol 71 Dec 1, 2014 P R A C T I C E R E P O R T S Layar ar Use of a pharmacy technician to facilitate postfracture care provided by clinical pharmacy specialists ADRIANE N. IRWIN, RACHEL M. F. HEILMANN, THERESA M. GERRITY, BEVERLY A. KRONER, AND KARI L. OLSON Purpose. The ability of a pharmacy tech- nician to support the patient screening and documentation-related functions of a pharmacist-driven osteoporosis manage- ment service was evaluated. Methods. A two-phase prospective study was conducted within a large integrated health system to assess a pharmacy techni- cian’s performance in supporting a multisite team of clinical pharmacy specialists provid- ing postfracture care. In phase I of the study, a specially trained pharmacy technician provided support to pharmacists at five participating medical offices, helping to identify patients requiring pharmacist in- tervention and, when applicable, collecting patient-specific clinical information from the electronic health record. In phase II of the study, the amount of pharmacist time saved through the use of technician support versus usual care was evaluated. Results. The records of 127 patient cases were reviewed by the pharmacy technician ADRIANE N. IRWIN, M.S., PHARM.D., is Clinical Assistant Profes- sor, Oregon State University College of Pharmacy, Corvallis; at the time of writing she was Clinical Pharmacy Research Fellow, Kaiser Permanente Colorado (KPCO), Aurora. RACHEL M. F. HEILMANN, PHARM.D., is Clinical Pharmacy Supervisor, KPCO, Denver, and Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Denver. THERESA M. GERRITY, PHARM.D., is Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, KPCO, Brighton. BEVERLY A. KRONER, PHARM.D., is Primary Care Clinical Pharmacy Services Chief, KPCO, Aurora. KARI L. OLSON, PHARM.D., is Clinical Pharmacy Supervisor, KPCO, Aurora, and Clinical Associ- ate Professor, University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Address correspondence to Dr. Heilmann (rachel.m.heilmann@ kp.org). The following Kaiser Permanente Colorado clinical pharmacy specialists in primary care are acknowledged for making this project possible: Stephanie Campbell, Pharm.D., Stephanie Cho, Pharm.D., Michele Cox, Pharm.D., Rebekah Hansmeier, Pharm.D., Heather Hazeldine, Pharm.D., and Lynn Flach, Pharm.D. Funded by the ASHP Research and Education Foundation through a Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative demonstration grant. The authors have declared no potential conflicts of interest. Copyright © 2014, American Society of Health-System Pharma- cists, Inc. All rights reserved. 1079-2082/14/1201-2054. DOI 10.2146/ajhp140195 during phase I of the study, and a pharma- cist agreed with the technician’s determi- nation of the need for intervention in the majority of instances (92.9%). An additional 91 patient cases were reviewed by the technician in phase II of the research. With technician support, pharmacists spent less time reviewing cases subsequently deter- mined as not requiring intervention (mean ± S.D., 5.0 ± 3.8 minutes per case compared with 5.2 ± 4.5 minutes under the usual care model; p = 0.78). In cases requiring inter- vention, technician support was associated with a reduction in the average pharmacist time spent on care plan development (13.5 ± 7.1 minutes versus 18.2 ± 16.6 minutes with usual care, p = 0.34). Conclusion. The study results suggest that a pharmacy technician can accurately deter- mine if a patient is a candidate for pharma- cist intervention and collect clinical informa- tion to facilitate care plan development. Am J Health-Syst Pharm. 2014; 71:2054-9 S tudies show that pharmacist involvement in patient care improves outcomes, with reduc- tions in adverse drug events and medication errors, enhanced pa- tient knowledge about their medi- cations, and increased medication- use appropriateness. 1,2 As a result, there is a unique opportunity to leverage the knowledge and skills of pharmacists to expand clinical ac- tivities, particularly in the manage- ment of diseases with broad clinical and economic impacts. Osteopo- rosis is a major health concern affecting an estimated 52 million American women 50 years of age or older 3 ; in 2005, more than 2 million women in the United States experi- enced a fracture at associated costs of approximately $17 billion, with those costs predicted to increase to $25.3 billion by 2025. 3,4