Background and importance In the field of clinical pharmacy services there are activities that are suitable for pharmacy technicians under the supervision of a pharmacist. At the university hospital in Dresden one full-time pharmacist and one half-time pharmacy technician (4 hours/day) are looking after 80 beds in the department of urology. The main tasks of the pharmacy technician are medication reconciliation as well as clinical prioritisation by using guidelines to identify patients who are at high risk of drug-related problems.

Aim and objectives The aim of this study was to identify the clinical pharmacy services where the integration of pharmacy technicians has the biggest impact on avoiding drug-related problems.

Material and methods Since 2019 the pharmacy technician has recorded their interventions in a categorical Excel worksheet, and there are two documentation weeks per quarter. The categories are drug name, short description of the drug-related problem, intervention, classification (dose-related problems, consultation of general practitioner, consultation of patient, electronic prescription, other drug-related problems after discussion with the pharmacist, drug substitution).

Results During 22 documentation weeks from January 2019 to September 2020 the pharmacy technician documented 468 interventions. The main interventions were drug substitution on admission considering local guidelines (n=181; 39%), consultation with the general practitioner because of identified discrepancies on the medicine lists (n=138; 29%) and consultation with patients because of identified discrepancies (n=78; 17%). Dose-related interventions and other drug-related problems were detected by the pharmacy technician and discussed with doctors under the supervision of the pharmacist (n=49; 10%).

Conclusion and relevance Especially in the field of medication reconciliation, trained pharmacy technicians can be suitable to prevent medication errors. Consultations with general practitioners and patients because of identified discrepancies on the medication lists are time-intensive and probably would not happen in the same way without integration of the pharmacy technician. Drug substitution in consideration of local guidelines and the preparation of the electronic prescription led to fewer queries from nurses or doctors.

References and/or acknowledgements 1. Incorporation of pharmacy technicians to support clinical pharmacy services; Krankenhauspharmazie 2021;42:414–8. (Einbindung von pharmazeutisch-technischen Assistenten (PTA) in die klinisch-pharmazeutische Arbeit auf Station (krankenhauspharmazie.de))

Conflict of interest No conflict of interest