Florida 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

Florida Law

I. Laws
465.014 Pharmacy technician
465.014 Pharmacy technician.—
(1) A person other than a licensed pharmacist or pharmacy intern may not engage in the practice of the profession of pharmacy, except that a licensed pharmacist may delegate to pharmacy technicians who are registered pursuant to this section those duties, tasks, and functions that do not fall within the purview of s. 465.003(13). All such delegated acts shall be performed under the direct supervision of a licensed pharmacist who shall be responsible for all such acts performed by persons under his or her supervision. A pharmacy registered technician, under the supervision of a pharmacist, may initiate or receive communications with a practitioner or his or her agent, on behalf of a patient, regarding refill authorization requests. A licensed pharmacist may not supervise more than one registered pharmacy technician unless otherwise permitted by the guidelines adopted by the board. The board shall establish guidelines to be followed by licensees or permittees in determining the circumstances under which a licensed pharmacist may supervise more than one but not more than three pharmacy technicians.
(2) Any person who wishes to work as a pharmacy technician in this state must register by filing an application with the board on a form adopted by rule of the board. The board shall register each applicant who has remitted a registration fee set by the board, not to exceed $50 biennially; has completed the application form and remitted a nonrefundable application fee set by the board, not to exceed $50; is at least 17 years of age; and has completed a pharmacy technician training program approved by the Board of Pharmacy. Notwithstanding any requirements in this subsection, any registered pharmacy technician registered pursuant to this section before January 1, 2011, who has worked as a pharmacy technician for a minimum of 1,500 hours under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist or received certification as a pharmacy technician by certification program accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies is exempt from the requirement to complete an initial training program for purposes of registration as required by this subsection.
(3) A person whose license to practice pharmacy has been denied, suspended, or restricted for disciplinary purposes is not eligible to register as a pharmacy technician.
(4) Notwithstanding the requirements of this section or any other provision of law, a pharmacy technician student who is enrolled in a pharmacy technician training program that is approved by the board may be placed in a pharmacy for the purpose of obtaining practical training. A pharmacy technician student shall wear identification that indicates his or her student status when performing the functions of a pharmacy technician, and registration under this section is not required.
(5) Notwithstanding the requirements of this section or any other provision of law, a person who is licensed by the state as a pharmacy intern may be employed as a registered pharmacy technician without paying a registration fee or filing an application with the board to register as a pharmacy technician.
(6) As a condition of registration renewal, a registered pharmacy technician shall complete 20 hours biennially of continuing education courses approved by the board or the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, of which 4 hours must be via live presentation and 2 hours must be related to the prevention of medication errors and pharmacy law.
(7) The board shall adopt rules that require each registration issued by the board under this section to be displayed in such a manner as to make it available to the public and to facilitate inspection by the department. The board may adopt other rules as necessary to administer this section.
(8) If the board finds that an applicant for registration as a pharmacy technician or that a registered pharmacy technician has committed an act that constitutes grounds for discipline as set forth in s. 456.072(1) or has committed an act that constitutes grounds for denial of a license or disciplinary action as set forth in this chapter, including an act that constitutes a substantial violation of s. 456.072(1) or a violation of this chapter which occurred before the applicant or registrant was registered as a pharmacy technician, the board may enter an order imposing any of the penalties specified in s. 456.072(2) against the applicant or registrant.
History.—ss. 1, 7, ch. 79-226; ss. 2, 3, ch. 81-318; ss. 10, 26, 27, ch. 86-256; s. 59, ch. 91-137; s. 6, ch. 91-156; s. 4, ch. 91-429; s. 242, ch. 97-103; s. 192, ch. 97-264; s. 120, ch. 99-397; ss. 2, 3, 4, ch. 2008-216.

II. Regulations
There is no formal language regarding written for pharmacy technicians for the above criteria.

References
Florida Statutes Pharmacy chapter 465

Florida Administrative Code Division 64b16 Board of Pharmacy
https://www.flrules.org/gateway/division.asp?orgNo=64B16

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.