TECHNICIAN URAC QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RATED A

TECHNICIAN URAC QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RATED A • When were you hired? X • What is your background? (mini resume) X • How many years have you been working here? X • What are your job functions/tasks? o No patient counseling, only Order Entry, Filling and Packaging. • Do you know what your job description is? How is this defined? How is this updated? How are you assessed on your daily functions? o Job Description: is "Assists the Pharmacist in reviewing, processing, preparing, filling, labeling and dispensing of medications and supplies. o Answers telephones responding to questions or requests. o Arranges work activities so that the pharmaceutical needs of patients are met. o Cleans equipment, and maintains all required temperature logs as per corporate Policy and Procedures. o While completing fulfillment functions, checks medication and administration supply inventory for out-of-date products, removes products from inventory and works with the appropriate resource to record out-of-date products. o Assists with full inventory and cycle counts. o Assists with putting away newly received inventory in the appropriate location in the pharmacy. o Performs related duties as assigned or requested." o Defined in the HR Packet Given Upon Hire, Updated As needed o You are assessed on daily functions through a yearly performance review in December. • Who is your supervisor? o Keta Jhala • Who does your supervisor report to? o Raj Jhala • How do you keep your patients safe? Site specific examples. o Verifying Name and DOB on every call and pickup ( to make sure it's the right patient everytime) o Double checking my Data Entry before submission. o Making Sure to stay up to date on my training. • Do you feel safe in your workspace? How are you kept safe in your workspace? o Yes, Kept Safe with Disaster/Evacuation Plans in Place when needed. o General Evacuation Plan, Pharmacist calls 911 or appropriate agency, everyone meets outside at designated location by trashcan in corner of parking lot as safe zone. • What do you do if there is a power outage? o Backup Generator to start for fridge and server o Pharmacist to Call Landlord if backup generators do not activate o Initiate evacuation of employees and patients. o Landlord or vendor to arrive and assess situation o Landlord of vendor to give all clear o Also, Pharmacist to Call Spectrum To Temporarily Change Phone Settings for pharmacy until power resolved. o If backup generator does not activate, medication will be transferred to Excel Pharmacy. Also, calls will be re-routed to Excel Pharmacy. • What specific tools/ resources do you have that help you function with your daily tasks? o REMS Medication List posted above FILLING 2 station. o Hazardous Drugs Marked on Shelves with BIOHAZARD/BIOPELIGRO STICKERS that are ORANGE. Also, we have a separate tray to count these medications. o Look alike sound Alike Drugs Separated on Shelves with STOP SIGN STICKERS. o The Pharmacist Support • How do you protect patients PHI and Billing info under the HIPAA guidelines? o Confirm DOB and Address while on phone with patient to ensure right patient o Protect Billing by ensuring to log off terminal when leaving computer so no one else has access to CC info. • Where is HIPAA info stored in Pharmacy Operating System? o HIPAA info is stored in the patient profile and the demographic profile. • How would you define the term "conflict of interest"? In the context of your job description (technician and pharmacist separate) how would you define this term? o Any Financial Benefit to make a healthcare decision for a patient that is not in their best interest • Do you know of any projects that are currently being worked on for Quality Improvement, increasing operational efficiencies, or improving patient health outcomes? o There is 1 major Quality improvement project the pharmacist is working on: o Decreasing the number of medication errors o We are helping by recording medication errors in Pharmacy Quick Tools Incident Logs to help track them. • What are your current Process Improvement projects? Have they been successful? How so? o There is 1 major Process improvement project the pharmacist is working on: o Decreasing Delivery Time for patients o We are helping by recording shipping errors in Pharmacy Quick Tools Incident Logs to help track them. • How do you provide "patient advocacy"? o Patient advocacy is doing what is best for patients by being their advocate for complaints, healthcare needs, etc. I advocate for my patients by saving them money, ensuring my pharmacist answers all their questions, and helping them understand the processes that occur in pharmacy. • What would you do if you suspected you received a counterfeit drug? o Saint Peters Community Pharmacy reviews notices from wholesalers, manufacturers and news sources and promptly acts upon information regarding counterfeit drugs. We review on-hand inventory in such cases to identify potentially counterfeit products. We provide training to staff members on how to identify signs of counterfeit drugs. These signs include unanticipated side effects and changes in packaging, labeling, color, taste, and pill shape. Saint Peters Community Pharmacy uses the National Association of Board of Pharmacies for materials to train employees. o Mostly, it will look tampered with, a different color, or have anything off with the label on the bottle. o ( • If you were aware of someone partaking in unethical behavior, who would you report it to? o Supervisor ( Keta or Raj Jhala) • Who and how would you report a HIPAA violation that was brought to your attention? o Report to Supervisor (Keta or Raj Jhala) o Pharmacist Records in HIPAA Violation LOG in Pharmacy Quick ToolsIncident Logs and contacts both parties affected to inform them of the breach. • Who and how would you report and solve an escalated complaint from a patient? o Help if I can, If not, Inform the supervisor. o Record incident in the Pharmacy Quick Tools Complaint Log o Pharmacist to finish complaint Log once resolved. • Who would you define as a "high risk patient"? How do you assess these patients differently? o High Risk Patients are patients with REMS Medications ( Isotretinoin Products, Saxenda, Suboxone, Subutex) o High Risk Patients are also extremes in Age groups ( Age 65, or Age 12) o These patients are different because strict monitoring and compliance needs to be maintained for REMS Medications patients. For the patients in the extreme age groups, we need to ensure appropriate dosing is followed for them (higher or lower dosing) based on weight, liver and kidney function and a variety of other reasons. • How do you handle Patients needing a translator? o Under our saved tabs on Chrome, we have a tab Call Interpreter. It is our interpreter service called language line. Once we login, there are instructions on the screen. It says dial and enter pin . From there personnel will answer and assist with the translation with the patient on a three way call. • If you had a patient that required help outside of your scope of practice, how would you go about assisting this patient? o If patient requires help outside our scope of practice, I would direct them to my supervisor. o The supervisor would try and assist the patient by finding the appropriate personnel, phone number, or company that would be able to assist the customer. • If you received a customer complaint, who would you report the complaint to? How would you deal with the disgruntled customer? o Customer Complaints are written up in Pharmacy Quick Tools Complaint Log o The patient is then directed to the pharmacist in charge or lead technician o The Pharmacist/Lead technician will then do what is needed to resolve the issue in a timely fashion and record on the complaint log. • How do you handle a call from a Doctor's office calling in a prescription and stating they need the medication the next day? (STAT order process) o The pharmacist immediately writes down the prescription on the Prescription pad, hands it directly to a data entry technician to be processed right away, the patient is immediately called to collect all insurance and billing information. The processed label is then handed directly to the filler, pharmacist and packager for the STAT medication to ensure it is sent out the same day if medication is in stock. • How is your work evaluated and scored for quality and efficiency, and do you have Performance reviews? How often? o Work is evaluated and scored for quality and efficiency by the pharmacist ensuring all potential errors are handed back to the processing technician and they are immediately coached on how to fix the potential error. o Performance reviews are conducted, every year in December, by the pharmacy supervisors. • Where do you document patient educations? o If specific patient education is provided by the pharmacist, it is recorded in the patients notes section of the profile. • If there was a natural disaster where your patient was located, how would you get their medication to them? o In the case of a natural disaster, the patients requesting their medications are offered the medications to be transferred to a local pharmacy surrounding them in order to continue therapy. o Or we can transfer to Excel Pharmacy if appropriate. • How do you handle adverse drug events reported from patients? o Adverse Drug Events are immediately transferred to the pharmacist. o The Pharmacist records the reaction in the profile and adds the appropriate allergies if needed. o The pharmacist informs the patient to stop taking the medication. o Depending on the severity, the patient will call the doctor or be advised to go to a urgent care. o The pharmacist can then report the ADE to Medwatch via • Do you know your hours of operation? What are they? o Monday - Friday 9-6PM, Saturday 10am - 1PM • What happens to patient phone calls when your pharmacy is closed? Do you have someone that deals with "on-call" phone calls? o Patient phone calls are directed to our after-hours voicemail line. o There is an option to dial 9 to immediately reach an after-hours service who re-directs the call to our pharmacist on call o There is an After Hours Call Log located in pharmacy quick tools Pharmacist On Call Log URAC • When do patients receive monographs and drug information? o Patients receive REMS specific monographs and drug information sheets for REMS Medications: Isotretinoin products, Suboxone, Subutex, Saxenda. o Patients also receive individual monographs on all other medications. • Have you ever helped a patient to find an organization or help group in their area for their disease state? o We have not. • Do you get a Bonus?• Are you incentivized? NO • How do you get updates from your manager/supervisor about performance? o The pharmacist completes a 90 day review and a once yearly review for overall performance. o For weekly communications, the pharmacists in charge announce any updates as needed. o Daily feedback is given when a medication is processed incorrectly and immediately fixed. • How does your team communicate? o The Pharmacy team communicates through our work portal on a daily basis and through our monthly meetings. o The pharmacists and lead technicians also communicate via email. WE DONT USE SLACK. • How are you informed of computer updates? o Liberty Software releases an update quarterly. There is a quarterly summary of all the changes that will be implemented to improve efficiency that loads in the primary screen before the software launches letting everyone know of the changes the first time they sign in. • How are you informed of new drug updates? o New Drug Updates are communicated during the monthly meetings. • How would you report an adverse event? o Adverse Drug Events are immediately transferred to the pharmacist. o The Pharmacist records the reaction in the profile and adds the appropriate allergies if needed. o The pharmacist informs the patient to stop taking the medication. o Depending on the severity, the patient will call the doctor or be advised to go to a urgent care. o The pharmacist can then report the ADE to Medwatch via • How were you trained specifically for your current role? o Training is completed by a combination of the pharmacist, lead technicians, and all other pharmacy technicians. Training is done systematically where the technician first learns pharmacy basics of filling and packaging. Then the technician learns to process refills. Then then technician learns to answer patient phone calls. o General Pharmacy training is done through PRS Services online to learn about Fraud Waste Abuse, HIPAA, etc. o Also, additional paper training is provided the first two weeks that the technician acknowledges. • How was your staff trained for URAC policies? o There is paper training for URAC and what URAC entails. o For the additional training material for URAC, we discussed the main updates to our policies in a monthly meeting. • If a patient lost their medication or a medication was lost in the mail, how would you go about getting a medication to a patient? o If the patient lost their medication we would investigate to see if we can a "Lost Prescription Override" from the insurance company and process and fill a replacement. o If the medication were lost in the mail, we would investigate with FedEx on the tracking to see if we can locate the prescription. If not, we would file a claim for the lost package with Fedex and provide a replacement package to the patient at no cost. o If the medication was a controlled substance lost in the mail, we would notify the doctor and approve an additional fill of the medication. If the patient claims it was stolen, we would require a police report from the patient to prove it was stolen. • Do you know where your policies are located? o Policies are located online in Pharmacy Quick Tools URAC • Do you have policies for your pharmacy other than URAC policies?o Yes, we have our employee handbook, HIPAA Policy, Anti-KickBack Policy, Attendance Policy, Maternity Leave Policy. • How are the services that you provide beneficial for your patients? o We provide fast service, quick delivery and save patients money. Essentially, we save them time and money. o Our company's official MISSION STATEMENT is "Saint Peters Community Pharmacy has the following mission statement: To provide safe, high quality patient care in an atmosphere of professionalism, respect, and effective communication. We also strive to continuously provide trustworthy, cutting edge resources dedicated to the development of specialized, custom medications that sets the standard for quality and innovation in our industry." o Know the general points of our mission statement well. • Do you provide your patients with "Rights and Responsibilities"? What are their "Rights and Responsibilities"? o Yes, we provide a "Welcome Packet" attached to every shipped medication that includes the patients "Bill of Rights". This is basically all of the patients' rights as a patient. Below is exactly what is written on the welcome packet. o "As our patient, you have the right to: To select those who provide you with Pharmacy services To receive the appropriate or prescribed services in a professional manner without discrimination relative to your age, sex, race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual preference or physical or mental handicap To be treated with friendliness, courtesy and respect by each and every individual representing our Pharmacy, who provided treatment or services for you and be free from neglect or abuse, be it physical or mental To assist in the development and preparation of your plan of care that is designed to satisfy, as best as possible, your current needs, including management of pain To be provided with adequate information from which you can give your informed consent for commencement of services, the continuation of services, the transfer of services to another health care provider, or the termination of services To request and receive complete and up-to-date information relative to your condition, treatment, alternative treatments, risk of treatment or care plans To receive treatment and services within the scope of your plan of care, promptly and professionally, while being fully informed as to our Pharmacy's policies, procedures and charges To request and receive data regarding treatment, services, or costs thereof, privately and with confidentially To be given information as it relates to the uses and disclosure of your plan of care To have your plan of care remain private and confidential, except as required and permitted by law To receive instructions on handling drug recall To confidentiality and privacy of all information contained in the client/patient record and of Protected Health Information; PHI will only be shared with the Patient Management Program in accordance with state and federal law To receive information on how to access support from consumer advocates groups To Receive pharmacy health and safety information to include consumer's rights and responsibilities" • How do we deal with expired medications, how are they labeled and where are they stored? Expired medications are removed from inventory, and placed in an expired tote on the very top of the storage rack in a blue basket labeled, expired medications, do not use medications. WHAT IS OUR MISSION STATEMENT Saint Peters Community Pharmacy has the following mission statement: To provide safe, high quality patient care in an atmosphere of professionalism, respect, and effective communication. We also strive to continuously provide trustworthy, cutting edge resources dedicated to the development of specialized, custom medications that sets the standard for quality and innovation in our industry What does a counterfeit/adultrated drug look like? Pharmacy provides training to staff members on how to identify signs of counterfeit drugs. These signs include unanticipated side effects and changes in packaging, labeling, color, taste, and pill shape. Tell a pharmacist immediately. How do you send a Survey to Someone? Click on the word "Survey" and send them a text.