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What are the challenges or hurdles that could hold some of these changes back?
“One of the big areas is the fact that many of the therapy management responsibilities that the profession wants pharmacists to be able to do are not yet billable services. Until pharmacies find a way to negotiate a fee for service there’s not a great incentive for pharmacists to provide them. The Canadian healthcare system and patients have gotten a very good deal from pharmacists in terms of the amount of free care that’s provided to patients. A patient can go to most pharmacists in the country, spend time discussing a medication problem and get good health care information. At this time, the pharmacist has no way of being reimbursed for that service.”
Is there are a move afoot to find a way to compensate pharmacists for these services?
“Yes, the pharmacy advocacy associations in every province – the Ontario Pharmacy Association, the BC Pharmacy Association etc. all have initiatives in place that involve the negotiation of different reimbursement models for pharmacist services. Pharmacy technicians can free up time for pharmacists to do more of what they’re capable of, and in time pharmacists will be compensated for these additional duties.”
What were the biggest challenges in implementing this new accreditation process?
“There were a number of challenges. One is that the colleges made a strong statement to CCAPP that they did not want university level accreditation standards applied to the college system. So we zeroed in on the key elements of the standards that were appropriate for the college-level programs. The length of pharmacy technician programs varied across Canada from 24 weeks to two full academic years. As the accrediting body we had to determine what would be a reasonable program length, given the variabilities that existed in how each province regulated its public and private college systems. We also had to build accreditation standards around benchmarks such as the National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities entry, to practice competencies for pharmacy technicians and the Canadian Pharmacy Technician Educators’ Association educational outcomes for pharmacy technician program graduates.”
“Also, many pharmacy technicians programs were focused on one area of practice – such as only for retail pharmacy – but our stakeholders wanted technicians to have the skills for all areas of practice, including hospital pharmacy. That’s how CCAPP approaches the accreditation of our degree programs. Pharmacists graduate from Canadian pharmacy schools not as community pharmacists or hospital pharmacists but as pharmacists. So we had to make it clear that the pharmacy technician curriculum had to include hospital pharmacy, community pharmacy and LTC pharmacy knowledge and skills.”
“The third area of challenge for CCAPP was on the student admissions criteria and instructor credentials and qualifications. We had to make sure that the students in a pharmacy technician program were academically qualified to take this training and that the instructors teaching in all accredited programs had the expertise and qualifications to deliver a high quality educational program.”
What does this mean to people currently working as pharmacy technicians?
“The various provincial regulatory authorities have been holding focus groups and regional meetings of pharmacy technicians to bring them up to speed with what’s coming. Existing pharmacy technicians will likely have to complete the national certification examinations, and perhaps bridging programs, to become registered pharmacy technicians. ‘Registered Pharmacy Technician’ will become a protected title in some provinces, and people who do not go through the registration process will probably have to change their job title to something else, such as Pharmacy Assistant. They may also have their duties modified, because some of those duties will only be permitted to be performed by registered pharmacy technicians. I anticipate that many community pharmacies will still hire pharmacy assistants or people who are not registered pharmacy technicians, likely in pharmacies that are moving more cautiously in providing broader authority for their pharmacists to provide fee-generating drug therapy management services, or in providing more services for their patients as a competitive business strategy.”