Search
“There's just so many things out there for pharmacies to maximize,” says Tiffany Capps, a pharmacy tech and CPESN’s Pharmacy Operations and Communications Lead.
Pharmacy techs are the glue that keeps your pharmacy together. From processing insurance claims to building lasting patient relationships, they keep the pharmacy engine running. What’s more, their contributions to the industry go beyond traditional pharmacy walls.
Few exemplify this better than Tiffany (who’s also a friend of the Catalyst Pharmacy Podcast). Her work as a pharmacy tech, whether we’re talking about CPESN or her decade’s worth of patient care excellence with Galloway-Sands Pharmacy, shows what techs can do both within and beyond your pharmacy walls.
Pharmacy wasn’t always on Tiffany’s radar, but that’s where she found herself. Working for the chains was the farthest thing from paradise, as you can imagine. So, when she got a call from Brad Narran to work for Galloway-Sands, she jumped at the opportunity.
“I had no intention of pharmacy being my career,” Tiffany says. “I was thinking I'd be more like human resources, something like that.”
Her work as a pharmacy technician at Galloway-Sands gave her first-hand experience in what it takes to run a successful pharmacy. From the basics of selling scripts to promoting the pharmacy’s various patient-centered programs, her insights as a pharmacy worker proved invaluable for the pharmacy — which makes sense that she’d be in her current position.
Much like sports, patient care is a game of inches. Successful patient care depends on details, both large and small. Filling and selling prescriptions are only a part of building a strong patient base. It's the intangible, smaller bits that add up.
One such example is promoting med sync or making sure that multiple doctors for a single patient are all on the same page.
“If you're on the [med] sync call you see a patient that has multiple doctors, I get to know who those doctors are.”
Tiffany continues, “Are they a pain management doctor? Are they a PCP? Then, if you see that they're on two different maintenance medications prescribed by two different doctors, what’s the likelihood that that other doctor knows? How many times do we call and just double check?”
Though a couple of phone calls look light on the surface, this brand of proactiveness goes a long way in earning a patient for life.
“It’s just those small things that the staff may not have noticed matters so much in the patient outcomes.”
Who says you can’t make a difference in the pharmacy industry without wearing a white coat? Those who do not know the first thing about pharmacy techs like Tiffany.
Pharmacy techs are an indispensable part of pharmacy operations. Their contributions to the pharmacy industry go beyond selling prescriptions or answering phone calls. They facilitate your pharmacy’s workflow, adjusting it to whatever the situation demands.
Whether we’re talking peak rush hours or the opening/closing for the day, they know how to pick up the pace or slow things down to a walk.
Tiffany’s time with the North Carolina-based pharmacy showcases her knack for enhancing workflows for the betterment of both patients and pharmacy staff.
From medication packaging and delivery to med sync to medication therapy management, Galloway-Sands is a proper pillar of the North Carolina community, with not a single tar heel in sight.
As we’ve discussed in previous blogs, pharmacy techs play a major role in the industry, a role that goes beyond traditional pharmacy work.
Tiffany’s work as a tech at Galloway-Sands led her to become CPESN’s Pharmacy Operations and Communications Lead and Flip the Pharmacy's Social Learning Coordinator. These positions put her at the forefront of pharmacy communication and how independent pharmacies excel at communicating with their staff and patients in the modern age.
She helped initiate the CPESN Beacon program, a tech-centric counterpart to the pharmacist-led Luminary program.
“So CPESN has the Luminary network. Those are all your thought leaders and mentors, [...] so now we have Beacons, the counterparts to your luminaries.”
The Beacon network gives techs a way to grow their professional lives, where leadership positions and opportunities are there for the taking.
The network serves as a reminder that “you are not alone, and this is a career that we can all grow together in.”
Tiffany Capps knows that learning doesn’t stop when you leave the pharmacy for the day. Sometimes you need to get out of the pharmacy to find the path of innovation, which is where Catalyst Connect 2024 comes in.
Catalyst Connect is the must-attend pharmacy event of the year, held at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee. If you haven’t already, click the flame icon in your PioneerRx pharmacy software system to register.
Tiffany will be at Catalyst Connect to teach all things pharmacy work, from empowering your technicians to optimizing your sync workflow. And that’s just a taste of what’s in store for the event. Click here to view the class schedule. We hope to see you in Nashville!
Check out Tiffany’s appearance on the Catalyst Pharmacy Podcast for more insights and nuggets of tech-centric wisdom.
