Pharmacy tech compromise to be sought in S.C. bill

(Gina Smith – TheState.com, South Carolina)  A House bill to require two-thirds of the state’s pharmacy technicians to meet new education and training requirements has stalled.

Bill proponents say more training and education are needed to prevent prescription and medicine errors.

“In two weeks time, I went from working, folding linens in a linen store to making IVs at a pharmacy,” said Natasha Nicols, who has since become a pharmacist. She’s now president-elect of the S.C. Society of Health-System Pharmacists, which backed the bill.

It could be next session before a compromise could be brokered and a subcommittee of lawmakers takes the bill back up, said its sponsor, Rep. Kit Spires, a pharmacist and Lexington County Republican.

At issue is that nearly 5,000 of the state’s more than 7,400 technicians are not certified pharmacy technicians even though they work behind pharmacy counters, preparing medicines and filling prescriptions.

Instead, would-be techs pay a $40 registration fee. They are required to work under the supervision of a pharmacist and take 10 hours of continuing education annually.

No state agency tracks the number of prescription errors that occur in the state’s pharmacies. One is too many, said Kathy Darragh, of Greenwood, who told lawmakers Tuesday her granddaughter died after receiving an overdose of intravenous medicine in a hospital in South Carolina in 2002.

A tech and pharmacist failed to catch the error when filling an IV prescription, she said.

“My granddaughter fought many battles in her life and survived,” Darragh said. Complications from a surgery meant the child relied on IV injections to receive drugs and nutrition.

“But human error is not one you can fight against,” said Darragh, who became an IV pharmacy tech after the tragedy.

Opponents of the bill, including the S.C. Association of Chain Drug Stores, said the bill would hinder pharmacies’ abilities to recruit technicians.

“The real danger is an overwhelmed pharmacist with no help,” said Kevin Floyd, a Charleston pharmacist and president of the association. “It’s about a yearlong process to gain state certification.”

Floyd said rural areas and small pharmacies would suffer the most if the bill passed because they would not be able to fill technician positions.

“The cost of education and the time commitment is a barrier to lots of folks,” he said.

Under the bill, starting in 2012, pharmacy techs would be required to complete a certification program at a technical school, log 1,000 hours of work experience under a pharmacist and pass an exam.

Spires said the bill’s educational requirements are too stiff for the economic times and he will work on a compromise.