Hawaii Scorecard

Grading Scale:
A – 85-100%, B – 70-84.9%, C – 55-69.9%, D – 40-54.9%, F – 0-39.9%

Grading Categories & Criteria

Hawaii Law

I. Laws
§461-9 Pharmacist in charge; pharmacy personnel
§461-9 Pharmacist in charge; pharmacy personnel.
(a) A registered pharmacist shall be in personal and immediate charge of the pharmacy and personnel employed in the pharmacy. Temporary absences of the registered pharmacist shall be unlawful except for periods of time and under circumstances as authorized under the rules of the board. During any absence of the registered pharmacist, prescriptions may not be filled, compounded, or received by telephone and no drugs shall be sold; provided that this shall not preclude the sale at those times of things that might be sold were the pharmacy a store not subject to this chapter. No person other than a registered pharmacist or a pharmacy intern under the registered pharmacist’s immediate supervision shall fill or compound prescriptions except as provided by subsection (c).

(b) No person shall practice as a pharmacy intern without having first obtained a permit from the board. The board shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91 defining the functions of a pharmacy intern, establishing the requirements to be met by an applicant for a pharmacy intern permit, and specifying the duration of the permit and the procedures for the immediate supervision of the pharmacy intern by a registered pharmacist.

(c) A pharmacy technician may be employed to assist the registered pharmacist under rules adopted by the board pursuant to chapter 91 that define the qualifications and functions of the pharmacy technician and provide the procedures for control and supervision by a registered pharmacist.

II. Regulations
§16-95-86 Scope of a pharmacy technician
§16-95-86 Scope of a pharmacy technician. A pharmacy technician may perform the following tasks, not requiring professional judgment, under the immediate supervision of a pharmacist:

(1) Typing of prescription labels, drug packaging, stocking, delivery, record keeping, pricing, documentation of third party reimbursements, and preparing, compounding, storing, and providing medication;

(2) Mixing drugs with parenteral fluids provided that the pharmacy technician:

(A) Has a working knowledge of the pharmaceutical medical terms, abbreviations, and symbols commonly used in the prescribing, dispensing, and charting of medications;

(B) Is able to perform the arithmetic calculations required for the usual dosage determination and solution preparation;

(C) Has a thorough knowledge and understanding of the pharmacy technician’s duties and responsibilities, including standards of ethics governing the practice of pharmacy;

(D) Has a working knowledge of drug dosages, route of administration, and dosage forms;

(E) Has a working knowledge of the procedures and operations relating to the manufacturing, packaging, and labeling of drug products; and

(F) Has a working knowledge of the procedures and operations relating to aseptic compounding and parenteral admixture operations. [Eff and comp 12/24/92; comp 12/25/04] (Auth: HRS §461-4.5) (Imp: HRS §§461-9, 461-10, 461-11)

References
Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 461
http://hawaii.gov/dcca/pvl/hrs/hrs_pvl_461.pdf

Hawaii Administrative Rules Chapter 95
http://hawaii.gov/dcca/pvl/pvl/har/har_95-c.pdf

The data contained in this 2012 Annual Scorecard are accurate as of December 2012 .  Because statutes and regulations are continually revised, the data are subject to change.  These data have been verified with the state board of pharmacy.  This scorecard is updated on an annual basis in order to incorporate statutory and regulatory changes.  A new scorecard will be issued in July 2013.

Scoring rationale for Education and Training:
In order to protect the public and help ensure patient safety, it is important that pharmacy technicians are properly educated and trained.  The most rigorous training is accredited training.  The sole entity empowered to accredit pharmacy-technician training programs is the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP).  Please note that this is “programmatic accreditation” – not “institutional accreditation.”  It is the content of the training program – as measured against established standards – that is being evaluated and accredited.  Accredited training is vital to protecting patient safety because it means that a pharmacy-technician training program has met established quality standards to provide assurance and confidence to the public.  For more information, please see http://www.ashp.org/menu/Accreditation/TechnicianAccreditation.aspx.

Scoring rationale for Certification:
Certification is the process by which a nongovernmental agency or association grants recognition to an individual who has met certain predetermined qualifications specified by that agency or association.  This is often determined by an examination process.  Numerous organizations have recommended that the certification exam conducted by the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) should be recognized as the sole, nationally-accredited certification exam for pharmacy technician certification – including the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), the Texas State Board of Pharmacy (TSBP), and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In a recent report, NABP recommended that states be encouraged to “recognize certification by the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB).” Moreover, NABP performed a psychometric audit of the PTCB’s pharmacy technician certification examination (PTCE) in 2001 and determined that the PTCE is psychometrically sound, defensible, and valid. In May 2010, the TSBP awarded the PTCB with the Pharmacy Technician Certification Provider contract in Texas. PTCB was selected for the contract after a rigorous bidding and evaluation process that included formal reviews and evaluations from three independent psychometricians. TSBP confidently recognizes PTCB as the single provider of certification examinations for pharmacy technicians. In addition, in June 2010, the VA began requiring PTCB certification for VA pharmacy technicians employed at grade GS-6 and above.

Scoring rationale for Registration/Licensure:
Registration/licensure is the process by which the state maintains a list of all pharmacy technicians in the state and grants permission for an individual to work as a pharmacy technician in the state based on the applicant’s completion of all pre-requisites to registration/licensure – such as required training and certification.

Scoring rationale for Continuing Education:
Continuing education enables pharmacy technicians to fulfill their professional responsibility to maintain competence and up-to-date knowledge and skills in an environment of technological advances and increasingly complex, new medications and therapies.