November 2, 2017

Washington, DC -- The Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) is pleased to announce that the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) has granted re-accreditation to the PTCB Pharmacy Technician Certification Program through November 30, 2021.

To qualify for renewal of accreditation, the PTCB Program underwent NCCA’s recently updated extensive review process to demonstrate compliance with NCCA Standards for the Accreditation of Certification Programs. The NCCA Standards were updated in 2014 for a January 2016 implementation. Accreditation for professional or personnel certification programs provides impartial, third-party validation that a program has met recognized national and international credentialing industry standards for development, implementation, and maintenance of certification programs. The PTCB Program’s accreditation was initially granted in 2006 and renewed in 2011.

“NCCA accreditation represents an independent, third-party in-depth review by certification experts,” said William Schimmel, PTCB Associate Executive Director. “Choosing to renew our accreditation demonstrates PTCB’s commitment to excellence and a high standard of practice in the certification industry."

Founded in 1995, PTCB is a nonprofit certification organization acting in the public interest. PTCB advances medication safety by certifying technicians who are qualified to support pharmacists and patient care teams in all practice settings. Certified pharmacy technicians (CPhTs) assist pharmacists in many roles, including dispensing medications, verifying prescriptions, immunizing patients, compounding sterile preparations, point of care testing, medication therapy management, telepharmacy, and more. They are accountable to the supervising pharmacist who is legally responsible through state licensure for patient safety. PTCB has granted more than 615,000 certifications since its founding in 1995.

The NCCA standards are consistent with The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, APA, and NCME). PTCB’s renewal process entailed a lengthy review of PTCB's procedures, protocols, and operations. NCCA standards addressed the structure and governance of PTCB, the characteristics of the PTCB Certification Program, the information required to be available to exam candidates, certificants, and the public, and the recertification initiatives of PTCB. PTCB's test development and administration procedures, psychometric analyses, and policies and procedures all meet NCCA's stringent standards.

Certification organizations that submit their programs for NCCA accreditation are evaluated based on their processes and products. Their program content validity is demonstrated with a comprehensive job analysis conducted and analyzed by experts, with data gathered from occupation or industry stakeholders. NCCA accredited programs encompass a wide range of professions and occupations, including nurses, automotive professionals, respiratory therapists, counselors, and others. To date, NCCA has accredited approximately 330 programs from more than 130 organizations. More about NCCA accreditation standards is found at NCCA Accreditation.