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H.R. 5491, Emily's Act
- This item is from the 110th Congress (2007-2008) and is no longer current. Comments, voting, and wiki editing have been disabled, and the cost/savings estimate has been frozen.
Comparing original version (created by webmaster) with revision saved on February 27, 2008, 18:30:25 (webmaster):
H.R. 4591 would amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize grants to States to establish and implement programs for registering pharmaceutical technicians.
== Detailed Summary ==
<summary>
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</summary>
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== Status of the Legislation ==
<status>
(Log inLatest Major Action: 2/26/2008: Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to edit the wikiHouse Committee on Energy and be the first to update the status of the bill!)Commerce.
</status>
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== Points in Favor ==
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== Points Against ==
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Visitor Comments
Gina
April 2, 2008, 7:42am (report abuse)IT'S ABOUT TIME!!! I have been a technician for 20 years and I am appalled at the caliber of technicians that are in the field today. If you knew what I knew you would be scared to death and the employers don't care. They just want a warm body to fill the position.
Raven
April 7, 2008, 8:52pm (report abuse)It's about time that a standard was in place. I have only been a PTCB Certified Tech for under a year but I have already seen what kind of under trained personnel can do. We need a national standard and to quit letting people walk in off the streets. For Pete's sake beauticians have to have more schooling than a Pharmacy Tech
Elaine
April 30, 2008, 9:18am (report abuse)In my 38 years as a pharmacy technician, I am devastated by the standards in which retail pharmacys are training a technician and then calling them such. Some technicians are only being given an online HIPAA and OSHA test. Pharmaceutical calculations are a foreign object to them. That is one reason that prepared technicians are not decently paid! Please drug stores, require more of your technicians. When we hire technicians from your facilities-we want properly trained,knowledgeable technicians!
P. Valentin
May 8, 2008, 8:22pm (report abuse)This is long overdue! I have been a pharmacy technician for over 30 year's and have been pushing for Proper Educational requirements and standards. ASHP has had these standards published for years. If these standards are inacted upon without being watered down then we will have Pharmacy Technicians who are educated and ready to work in any and all Pharmacy Settings!!
Mary
May 11, 2008, 11:58pm (report abuse)People need to know there are different criteria for pharm techs in different work situations. I work in a pharmacy for Long Term Care facilities, with no retail or mail order, and there are different knowledge levels needed internally. Our pharm techs do not do the work of the pharmacists, and pharmacists must check every order multiple times before it clears. Four to one ratio of techs gets the job done. Changing to two to one would cripple the closed-door pharmacy industry and severly raise the costs of pharmaceuticals to nursing homes.
David - R.Ph.
June 19, 2008, 11:38am (report abuse)I am a Pharmacist and agree that we need training for Pharmacy technicians. If the ASHP is the only accrediting agent then we as a industry are in trouble. All colleges of Pharmacys are accredited by Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education. (ACPE) The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education is the national agency for the accreditation of
professional degree programs in pharmacy and providers of continuing pharmacy education.
ACPE was established in 1932 for the accreditation of professional degree programs in
pharmacy. In 1975 its scope was broadened to include accreditation of providers of continuing
pharmacy education (www.acpe-accredit.org).
A.B. Texas
June 21, 2008, 12:42pm (report abuse)I am a teacher and use a Program that has ACPE accreditation. I have a 98% pass ratio of students who have completed my course and have taken the PTCB exam. The course is a interactive CD sold by a company called PassAssured. Check out there web site at
www.passassured.com
Lisa From MS
June 27, 2008, 1:01pm (report abuse)Please let this bill pass! I am one of many other certified technicians w/ an Assoc. Degree who would like to see our profession recognized and respected for what it really is. We take our career seriously and have already pursued the proper avenues that will be required of Emily's Act. If the general public is made aware of the current Tech. requirements in MS, they would back this legislation 100%. A National Standard for Pharmacy Technicians is greatly needed.
DJ
July 2, 2008, 11:05am (report abuse)I work in a large retail grocery chain as a pharmacy technician. When hired 3 1/2 years ago, I had a specific range of time to complete my employer's tech training program. Fail to do so and you're eliminated. Although I'm studying for the PTCB test, It's SO far over the top for anything performed in a retail pharmacy! I could ill afford the training CD but purchased it anyway as I'm self supporting. No one will want to be a pharmacy tech if they have to take such a rigourous test to make $10 an hour. I pray this bill goes to defeat or something a lot more sensible takes it's place.
Mike from San Diego
July 3, 2008, 11:33pm (report abuse)Although something like this bill is needed, this is not the bill. It takes no consideration for accumulated knowledge via testing or grandfathering, it ignores other NCCA Pharmacy Technician certifying agencies, it dismisses every other Pharmacy Technician educational program save ASHP's, of which 15 states don't even have one, and it does not acknowledge the differing educational needs of institutional, retail, industry and mail order.
It is a grossly incomplete bill.
Sarah Campbell
October 15, 2008, 9:58am (report abuse)I have a cpht for 6 years and have appalled at how the retail pharmacies treat techs. There really needs to be a setting for a techs and people off of the street should not be allowed to just come in and work with no training.
Randall
October 15, 2008, 10:08am (report abuse)All techs should be certified by the PTCB. This act is long overdue. Too many people walking in off the street and making a mess out of many pharmacies because they don't have the skill set necessary to become competent. AT least certification and training will give some basic assurance that there is a genuine interest and a basic competence that will allow health care providers to separate those who can from those who cannot.
Mignon
November 5, 2008, 11:25am (report abuse)I am attending school to be a certified Pharmacy Tech. and i find that by doing so it will be my responcability to look out and take care of those patiens in my care. I believe that no one should be able to adminiser any med without proper education to do so. This act, in my opinion, should have been in affect from the get go.
LiAnne in TX
December 12, 2008, 5:57pm (report abuse)This bill, or some version thereof, is long overdue. Having worked as a technician for over 15 years, and for the past 2 and a half years as a technician educator, it baffles me why I continue to hear that the profession of pharmacy is "not ready" to yield to formal technician education. Let's set aside the opportunity to advance our profession, and focus on the whole point of why we chose a health profession in the first place: patient care. From a patient safety standpoint, in view of the National Patient Safety Goals, education holds such great importance. At the very LEAST, pharmacy technicians need to have a clear understanding of the rationale for medication therapy, as well as a solid working knowledge of various classifications of drugs. It's well known that ours is the only allied health profession in which one isn't required to attend formal training prior to sitting for the board exam. Patients' lives hang in the balance, it's that important.