Impact of Pharmacy Technicians on Clinician and Nurse Work Experience in Primary Care

Abstract

Purpose: A mixed-methods study was conducted to determine if adding pharmacy technicians to primary care teams relieved clinicians and nurses of prescribing tasks and improved perceptions of administrative burden and quality of care.

Methods: A retrospective mixed-methods study using a survey and analysis of electronic health record data was conducted 1 year after deployment of 5 primary care pharmacy technicians in a safety-net group of 11 primary care clinics. Measures included administrative data on pharmacy technician work, survey measures of clinician and nurse ratings of change in administrative burden and impact on patient care, and qualitative responses. Respondants to the survey included 46 physicians, 13 nurse practitioners or physician assistants, and 25 registered nurses (response rate 32%).

Results: In 1 year, the 5 pharmacy technicians addressed 43,782 medication items (65% refills, 18% medication problem, 17% prior authorizations). Mean ratings among clinicians and nurses for medication access work on a pain point scale of 1 to 10 decreased from 8.3 to 3.6 (P <.001) pre- and post-deployment of pharmacy technicians. Clinicians and nurses agreed that the pharmacy technicians had a highly beneficial impact on work experience (59%), quality of care (54%), and patient access to medications (63%). Qualitative analysis of open-ended question responses identified 5 main themes: dealing with prior authorizations, communicating with pharmacies, timely medication access for patients, expertise of pharmacy technicians, and reduced task burden and greater efficiency.

Conclusions: Pharmacy technicians are an underrecognized asset for team-based primary care, bringing expertise in efficiently managing medication access processes that benefits clinician and nurse work experience, quality of care, and patient access to medications.

Keywords: health services accessibility; medication access; patient care team; pharmacy technician; primary health care; prior authorization; team-based care.