Best practices: Incorporating pharmacy technicians and other support personnel into the clinical pharmacist's process of care

Changes to the U.S. health care landscape have increased the focus on the quality and use of alternative payment models, with a growing focus on value. As health care costs continue to rise, clinical pharmacists will increasingly engage in roles to expand the breadth and depth of clinical services in providing comprehensive medication management (CMM) to improve patient outcomes. The roles of pharmacy technicians and other support personnel must evolve to meet the needs created by this practice change and allow pharmacists to focus their services on activities that use their expertise to improve medication outcomes. Support personnel, including pharmacy technicians, should be identified to assist with clinical pharmacy tasks on the basis of their skills. To ensure competence, support personnel should be adequately trained and (if applicable) certified. Moreover, support personnel should be optimally incorporated into appropriate components of the clinical pharmacist's process of care to expand the reach and depth of clinical pharmacy services. When supervised by the pharmacist or others as defined in state practice acts, support personnel may be able to assist in the clinical pharmacist's provision of CMM. Finally, research should be conducted and disseminated on the utility and outcomes achieved using support personnel in the clinical pharmacist's process of care.