Employer	Headquarters	Practice Setting	Locations
Beth Israel Lahey Health	Cambridge, MA	Integrated Health System	14

 

Good for Business: Employers Investing in Pharmacy Technicians

Forward-thinking employers across the country recognize the win-win-win of investing in career development for pharmacy technicians– good for patients, good for technicians, and good for business.
 
The role of pharmacy technicians has expanded significantly in recent years in response to ongoing shifts in the healthcare landscape, like patient-centered care, changes in state regulations, technological advances, shortages of healthcare professionals, and the rise of telehealth. Public health emergencies have rapidly accelerated this expansion, with 83% of pharmacy technicians in the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB)’s 2022 Workplace Survey saying that their duties have expanded since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Today, pharmacy technicians increasingly perform sophisticated operational duties like supply chain and inventory management in community pharmacies and health system settings. In many states, the scope of practice for pharmacy technicians has broadened to include more advanced tasks traditionally performed by pharmacists, such as point of care testing, immunizations, sterile compounding, medication reconciliation, telehealth services, and automated dispensing systems. As pharmacy technicians perform a wider range of tasks on their pharmacy teams, they also take advantage of unprecedented leadership opportunities within their organizations and in state pharmacy associations and boards.

Smart employers know that knowledgeable, well-trained pharmacy technicians are critical in optimizing pharmacy workflow and building a strong reputation for quality care. They also know that expanding technician roles requires increasing their opportunities for career growth.

Beth Israel Lahey Health Developing System-Wide Career Ladders to 
Retain Technicians by Helping Them Grow, Specialize, and Lead 

The Backbone of Pharmacy Operations

BILH is an integrated health system that brings together more than 38,000 employees in Massachusetts and New Hampshire around a shared mission to expand access to care and advance the science and practice of medicine through groundbreaking research and education. Its 1,500 pharmacy team members work across 14 specialty and community hospitals, academic medical centers, and teaching hospitals with more than 2,600 beds, and in six retail and specialty pharmacy locations, filling an average of 1,650 prescriptions each day. 
 
President and Chief Pharmacy Officer Jess de Jesus, PharmD, MBA/HCM, FACHE, says pharmacy technicians are the backbone of BILH’s operations. And when hiring new technicians, team leaders like Director of System 340B Oversight and Compliance Shawn Wood, MBA, 340B ACE, CPhT,  and Supervisor for Medication Authorization and Access Nicole Francisco, CPhT look for candidates who are eager to learn and enthusiastic about their role. Communication is key for Retail Pharmacy Technician Supervisor Doriana Andrea, CPhT. “Technicians must be able to communicate clearly with pharmacists, other health care professionals, and patients to ensure accurate medication information and instructions,” says Andrea. Given the dynamic nature of the pharmacy environment, adaptability to change, ability to multitask, and attention to detail also rank high on the list of characteristics that make a successful pharmacy technician at BILH for Stephanie Mir, CPhT, Pharmacy Technician Supervisor at Beverly Hospital. Because tasks can vary widely depending on their setting, Mir says that technicians must also be able to work both independently and collaboratively as part of a pharmacy team. 

 

Photo courtesy of Beth Israel Lahey Health Pharmacy

 

“We all may have different areas of focus and may bring different experiences, but it's really our team approach that makes the patient experience and caring for patients better. We want to have team members with different types of skill sets, and together, our pharmacy technicians and our pharmacists really complement each other.” 

- Neil Gilchrist, PharmD, MBA, BCPS, DPLA, VP of Pharmacy Business Operations

 

In return, BILH offers its technicians rewarding long-term careers with opportunities for growth and leadership within the system. Technicians work at every level at BILH, from just starting their career in pharmacy to holding system-wide senior leadership positions. “A technician may come into a retail pharmacy role and then later transition into a specialty pharmacy technician role,” says Gilchrist. “And some of those technicians may become leads of a particular smaller team and then advance more into the formal management track where they can go anywhere from coordinator, supervisor, manager and then up to a director level.” 

Investment in career ladders is critical to recruiting, retaining, and allowing BILH technicians to progress from levels one, two, three, and lead positions into specialty or leadership roles within their pharmacy or the corporate structure based on their experience, certifications, and skills. BILH’s Pharmacy Technician Training (PTT) program is the first rung on the system’s career ladder. New, level one technicians go through a five-month paid program that utilizes a mix of on-site, hands-on training and online learning. BILH also emphasizes one-on-one coaching with mentors and regular meetings with supervisors, a practice that has improved communication and increased job satisfaction and engagement. “We're finding when we're meeting one-on-one with our team members, they really like hearing the good feedback and any constructive criticism,” says Francisco. Advancement to technician two typically takes six months to one year of tailored training based on roles and settings. Moving up to level three can take even longer as technicians work to get sign-off on all positions, develop specialties, and take on more leadership responsibilities within their pharmacy teams. All technicians are offered reimbursement for certification and other credentials, and BILH also encourages technicians to pursue higher education by offering tuition reimbursement to employees who earn their degrees.

Credentials and Career Paths

While BILH’s home state of Massachusetts only requires state licensure and registration, the system encourages its pharmacy technicians to pursue national certification and specialized credentials. Increasingly expanding responsibilities and the variety of settings within the BILH system allow pharmacy technicians to pursue a wide range of specialized roles by earning credentials such as Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT), Certified Compounded Sterile Preparation Technician^Ⓡ (CSPT^Ⓡ), and Advanced Certified Pharmacy Technician^TM (CPhT-Adv^TM).  Across the system, BILH technicians also hold certificates in areas like controlled substances diversion prevention, hazardous drug management, billing and reimbursement, immunization administration, regulatory compliance, and supply chain and inventory management. “We've definitely invested a lot in education and training and programs to help our techs get certified,” says Joyce Bermingham, Vice President of Human Resources Business Partners-Diversified Services. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) is one of the system’s entities that has put financial incentives in place to encourage technicians to pursue advanced certifications, and Chief Pharmacy Officer Peggy Stephan, MS, RPh says the center has seen a significant uptick in the number of technicians gaining certifications as a result. “I think that financial incentive has been really helpful,” says Stephan. “Reimbursing technicians for successfully passing certifications, reimbursement for continuing education up to a certain limit, as well as the salary bump are all reasons they want to do it.”

Julie Lanza, CPhT-Adv, CSPT, Pharmacy Training and Education Director

Around 70% of BILH’s pharmacy technicians are certified through PTCB. For Pharmacy Training and Education Director Julie Lanza, CPhT-Adv, CSPT, the benefits of working with PTCB are the opportunities for growth and development they offer. Lanza says PTCB stays on top of industry changes and the expanding scope of practice for technicians, citing their quick response during the COVID-19 pandemic to introduce an immunization administration certificate in response to the increased demand for such skills. “PTCB is not a one-and-done for technicians. I think that people don't realize that, before 2017, you were a certified pharmacy tech, and for lack of a better term, that was it. But in the past six years, we now have 11 different advanced certifications in all these subject matters,” says Lanza. Having technicians go beyond registration to earn certifications is important to Lanza as an employer partly because of the continuous education certification requires and the additional knowledge, proficiencies, and competencies technicians gain through the examination process. “That is a benefit for the individual technician because the opportunities for growth and development professionally are much more as a certified tech. And for us as an employer,” says Lanza.

 

 

“With the scope of practice expanding, all of these additional credentials give us a better opportunity to hire subject matter experts.” 

- Julie Lanza, CPhT-Adv, CSPT, Pharmacy Training and Education Director

 

BILH sees numerous other benefits to its partnership with PTCB. For Lanza, a key differentiator is the level of support PTCB provides. “The support that they give to any employer or any individual, individually certified tech is unmatched by any other place that I've ever dealt with,” says Lanza. She also notes PTCB’s support for the growth of the pharmacy technician field beyond their credentials. “They are very much involved in all aspects of pharmacy organizations outside of themselves to be there to support the growth of pharmacy technicians in every arena they can be,” says Lanza.

For technicians in BILH’s PTT program, the system pays for them to prepare and take PTCB’s Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam. BILH uses PTCB's direct billing option to help streamline the credentialing process for employees and the system. Bermingham says that for a large health system like BILH, the time savings offered by centralizing the process through direct billing is especially valuable. Lanza adds, “I also think it allows us to show how committed and dedicated we are to the actual candidate that's taking it because, with the click of a button, we can say, okay, sign up for the test. Here's your voucher. There's no downtime or waiting period.” Again, BILH sees this as mutually beneficial.  “Technicians can start a terrific new career, and then we have great quality people, too. Technicians are so appreciative of having the opportunity. We really do try to set them up for success, and I think financially funding it is part of that,” says Bermingham.

About 40% of the entities within the BILH system have implemented individual career ladders and incentives for advancement, including reimbursements for credentials, merit increases, and opportunities for leadership roles. Mir says Beverly Hospital created its career ladders in response to a 2018 staff survey where technicians voiced the need for career advancements. Now, BILH plans to standardize and scale its career ladders across entities. Lanza says BILH’s goal in the next 1-2 years is to have formal career ladders and a retention program in place system-wide to recognize the value of technicians and demonstrate its commitment to helping them grow their careers within the system. 

 

“Investing in pharmacy technicians brings a lot of value to our business. They are truly the backbone of our operations. I was a technician for eight years before I became a pharmacist, so I know how much work they do. We couldn't be as successful as we are without our technicians.” 

- Jess de Jesus (PharmD, MBA/HCM, FACHE), President & Chief Pharmacy Officer

Endless Opportunities

Investing in career ladders for pharmacy technicians is a win-win scenario for the system and technicians. For BILH, the investment pays dividends by bolstering recruitment, improving retention, and increasing job satisfaction. 

L to R: Joyce Bermingham VP Human Resources Business Partner - Diversified Services, Jess DeJesus President & Chief Pharmacy Officer, Hope Violette AVP Regulatory & Compliance, Neil Gilchrist VP Pharmacy Business Operations

“A couple of years ago, when I first started here, it was pretty evident that we had a huge pharmacy tech shortage,” says Bermingham. She says career ladders were a way to help solve that and recruit new technicians. Bermingham and Lanza launched the PTT, focusing on getting new technicians in the system’s door. “They get five months of paid training on-site at entities where there's a vacancy. So those vacancies were filled, and it was obviously worth the investment,” says Bermingham. The health system has also observed higher retention rates as career ladders offer technicians more opportunities to advance and move laterally within the organization. BILH sees investing in growth within the organization as a way to prevent losing talented technicians to other health systems. And it’s working. Since introducing career ladders, the system has seen a significant decrease in turnover rate as compared to previous years, as much as 30-40%, depending on the entity within the system.

BIDMC’s Stephan sees the expanded roles and opportunities to specialize and lead that career ladders offer as contributing to a cultural shift towards technicians considering pharmacy as a long-term career. BILH’s Assistant Vice President of Regulatory and Compliance, Hope Violette, agrees. “When I started, it was just the general title of pharmacy technician. Now, I think we've got something like 20 different job titles for pharmacy technicians. There are so many different ways that technicians can now specialize and differentiate. And techs have responded to that,” says Violette. “I used to see techs come and work in our pharmacies for maybe a year or two, and then they would go on and do something else completely different in order to advance their career path and salary. They would just go do something else because there wasn't really any room for advancement, and now what I'm seeing is people are moving, but they're moving up, or they're moving into something more specialized, but they're staying within pharmacy, and they are staying within our system.” 

 

Photo Courtesy of Beth Israel Lahey Health Pharmacy

 

Samantha Gandolfo, CPhT, CSPT, Pharmacy Buyer

Opportunities are driving morale and job satisfaction, too, says Violette. “We just had our most recent employee engagement survey, and I don't think I've ever seen scores that high since I've been in health care.” Stephan and Violette’s observations certainly apply to pharmacy technician Samantha Gandolfo, CPhT, CSPT. Currently a Pharmacy Buyer at BIDMC’s West Campus, Gandolfo comes from a family of healthcare providers. However, she knew little about the possibilities a career as a pharmacy technician offered when she joined the system four years ago. “The opportunity that was presented just seemed honestly too good to be true. I've had many roles here. I've just been able to climb the career ladder here,” says Gandolfo.  In her relatively short time at BIDMC, she’s staffed IV rooms, handled hazardous medications in inpatient oncology services, procured and maintained inventory, and worked in the prepackaging area.

When the pandemic hit, and Massachusetts voted to allow technicians to administer immunizations, Gandolfo took a detour from her career path in the inpatient pharmacy world to earn PTCB’s immunization administration certificate. For nine months, she helped immunize the BILH workforce and then patients at BIDMC’s vaccine clinics. “I had to demonstrate leadership skills,” Gandolfo said of the experience. “I felt confident taking on this new role and learning something new.” 

 

“If you are willing to put in the work, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center provides the resources.” 

- Samantha Gandolfo, CPhT, CSPT, Pharmacy Buyer

 

Gandolfo says PTCB also provided critical stepping stones for her advancement. In addition to her immunization administration certificate, Gandolfo is a CSPT and has her sights set on earning her supply chain and inventory management certificate next on her way toward her ultimate goal of CPhT-Adv. “I think it's important in the world of pharmacy to stay eager and to stay hungry,” she says.

Gandolfo says she enjoys the culture at BIDMC and the standard of excellence her teammates demonstrate. “Management here does care about their employees. I've always felt like I can grow, I can explore, I can learn. I'm not limited,” says Gandolfo. The ambitious and hard-working technician is quick to credit her colleagues and mentors for their role in her success. “They've helped me stay motivated, keep my eye on the prize, and keep going.”

The prize for Gandolfo is advancing into leadership positions within BILH, which she sees as a way to pay forward the support she’s received. “What they've done for me, I want to be able to do for other people because I'm forever grateful for all of the skills they've taught me, the time, and the support,” she says. “It's really critical when you are learning to have those things in place. Now, I'm able to mentor other technicians because of all the skill and effort put into me by my crew.”

For pharmacy technicians like Gandolfo, BILH’s multifaceted investment in training programs, career ladders, expanded roles, and support for credentials is paying off. The positive impact on recruitment, retention, and overall job satisfaction underscores the importance of such investments in the pharmacy workforce. “There's a great variety. You can go as far as you wish, you just have to put in the work,” says Gandolfo. The opportunities are endless.

 

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