Top Workplaces for Pharmacy Technicians by Pay
Outpatient Care Centers
From primary care clinics to urgent care centers, outpatient care plays a critical role in the lives of patients. In this environment, you may be responsible for receiving and entering prescription orders from physicians.
You’ll also prepare those same medications for dispensing, ensuring that you count, measure, and label them accurately. You may monitor medication stock and order supplies when necessary to ensure a smooth experience for patients.
Outpatient care centers are often willing to pay higher salaries for pharmacy technicians because of the need to develop rapport with patients and ensure a good working relationship. This makes it easier to educate patients on properly following their therapy regimen. This also allows you to assist them with their insurance claims and prior authorizations so they can get their medications promptly.
Research & Development Services
R&D pharmacy technicians are critical for supporting the research environment. This includes managing the stock of investigational drugs in the clinical setting, tracking ingredient expiration dates, and ordering and receiving shipments on the researchers’ behalf. You may be serving as a liaison between the pharmacy and other research staff, necessitating significant communication skills at every level.
Under a pharmacist’s supervision, you may also serve patients who are currently participating in clinical trials by accurately dispensing and labeling their medications. You may need additional training to be able to compound sterile or hazardous drugs and ensure the safety of both the people in the laboratory and the patients who will be taking these medications.
Finally, you’ll use your organizational skills to ensure compliance at every step of the clinical trial. This means maintaining detailed records of all drugs received and dispensed and ensuring that all activities follow regulatory protocols. You may also be asked to participate in audits from federal or state agencies.
Federal Government
When you wonder, “Where do pharmacy technicians work?” the federal government may not be on your list of expected answers. Acting as a pharmacy technician in the federal government is a highly unique and rewarding role.
You won’t be working in an office like many government employees. Instead, you’ll spend most of your time in government healthcare settings like the VA hospital, military base hospitals and facilities, and even public health agencies like the Centers for Disease Control.
In these healthcare settings, you will be responsible for measuring, mixing, counting, and labeling medications, ensuring that you follow all guidelines for both the federal agency you work for and general industry rules and regulations. You may also compound oral and IV medication under the supervision of a pharmacist.
You may have special protocols for managing inventory, including ordering and ensuring the proper storage of supplies. Often, the federal government requires that you follow specific procedures for spending money and documenting purchases.
In these government roles, you may also provide administrative support, including collecting and verifying patient information, maintaining profiles, processing insurance claims, and managing paperwork.
Medical & Surgical Hospitals
This clinically focused role allows you to work with and prepare more specialized medications. For example, if you’re working in a department that treats patients with cancer, you’ll get to use your skills as an oncology pharmacy technician to work with and dispense chemotherapy, IV, and other unconventional drugs and therapies.
As you work in the hospital setting, you will still take on the typical tasks of a pharmacy technician. However, you may also be tasked with filling automated dispensing machines located throughout the hospital for nurses and other medical staff to use. This usually requires even more careful inventory management, as you must keep track of supplies needed for each machine as well as the general hospital pharmacy.
You may need to coordinate orders with drug wholesalers and pharmaceutical companies that only supply medications directly to hospitals. Finally, be aware that you may have emergency responsibilities that outpatient or retail pharmacy techs don’t have. This means you might be asked to deliver essential medications during life-threatening situations.
Opportunities for Pharmacy Technicians to Maximize Their Pay
The best way for pharmacy technicians to maximize their salaries is to pursue national certification by earning a CPhT credential and transition into a setting that offers a higher wage, such as a federal agency, outpatient facility, or medical hospital.
Additionally, you may also consider gaining new skills or specializing in high-demand areas. For example, earning a compounding certification can allow you to take on a higher level of responsibility, as you will have the expertise to carry out this complex procedure in niche work environments that serve specific medical needs while still adhering to safety requirements and regulations.
With fewer pharmacy techs possessing this knowledge and skill, you may be able to command a higher salary.
How RxCe Can Help Pharmacy Techs Advance
RxCe provides pharmacy technicians with robust educational opportunities to enhance their skills, especially in high-demand specialty areas. Pharmacy technicians appreciate what our nonsterile compounding certificate program offers, including eight hours of online video training paired with a hands-on live practicum with a qualified pharmacist.
Our convenient and affordable memberships also offer continuing education courses on various topics to help you obtain the knowledge necessary to pivot into a new specialty or feel confident to work in a different environment.
Whether you’re looking for a more advanced role in your current setting or you want to make a change to take your career to the next level, contact us at RxCe to see how we can help you achieve your professional goals.
