Accuracy of technicians versus pharmacists in checking syringes prepared for a dialysis program

“Tech-check-tech”: A review of the evidence on its safety and benefits

“…The time frame for each was relatively short, ranging from seven days to six months. [24][25][26] It is possible that the high rates of accuracy technicians exhibited were due to the novelty of taking on a new task and that accuracy would decline after the "honeymoon" phase. Quality-assurance programs with ongoing monitoring are one strategy to prevent such regression and are a common element of most current TCT programs.…”

“…[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] This body of research spanned more than three decades ; the studies varied widely in their methodology, the practice settings evaluated, and the medication systems used. For an in-depth review of all the published TCT studies, readers are referred to the 2002 review by Wilson.…”

“…The following section of this article focuses specifically on three published reports on studies that assessed the accuracy or error-detection capability of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians using the same sample of medication doses (Table 1). [24][25][26] The reason for this focus is that a major limitation of the literature on TCT is that many published studies used different samples to evaluate the relative performance of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians 18 ; "samesample studies" such as the three summarized below allow a more meaningful head-to-head comparison.…”

“…Pharmacy technicians detected a greater proportion of introduced errors than pharmacists (97.0% versus 94.3%, respectively; p < 0.05), and the study report suggested that the task of error detection "could be safely delegated to technicians." 24 Another same-sample study was conducted by Anderson et al 25 in a Minnesota specialty pharmacy supplying prefilled syringes of five medications to outpatient dialysis units. Pharmacy technicians were allowed to participate in the study if they had at least six months of work experience and completed a five-hour training (the investigators did not describe the inclusion criteria for pharmacists).…”

“…The authors noted that the highly specialized nature of the practice setting in which the study was conducted may limit the program's adaptability to other settings. 25 Am J Health-Syst Pharm- Another same-sample study was conducted by Enderlin et al 26 at a children's hospital. Pharmacy technicians were included in the study if they had at least one year of work experience or six months of experience as a board-certified technician.…”