Pharmacy Technician - Escalation Team

Southend Pharmacy; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 42,000 - 62,000; Full time

Job summary

Southend Pharmacy is seeking an Escalation Pharmacy Technician to monitor the escalation chat, triage requests, and coordinate follow-up across teams. You will act as the central communication hub to keep requests owned, avoid duplication, and ensure timely updates.

The role requires at least 2 years in pharmacy operations, strong documentation skills, and proficiency with LifeFile, Excel, and collaborative tools like Teams/Chat.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or GED required.
• Active pharmacy technician registration or license in good standing as required by state.
• Minimum of 2 years of pharmacy ops experience in prescription processing, order fulfillment, or coordination.
• Experience using pharmacy management software to locate prescriptions and track status.
• Proficiency with Excel or Google Sheets to maintain escalation trackers.
• Experience using Teams or Google Chat to monitor requests and coordinate follow-up.
• HIPAA knowledge and proper handling of protected information.

Responsibilities

• Monitor escalation chat continuously during shift and acknowledge new requests promptly.
• Review messages for patient or order details, urgency, and required actions.
• Identify missing information and request it while protecting patient privacy.
• Assign or route requests to the appropriate owner and maintain real-time escalation tracker.
• Provide concise status updates; escalate high-risk or unresolved issues to pharmacists.
• Prepare end-of-shift handoffs with owner and next steps.
• Escalate delayed or unassigned requests to leadership and pharmacist as needed.
• Highlight urgent issues to support VIP clinic service and leadership.

Skills

Escalation monitoring

Communication

Documentation

Time management

HIPAA privacy

Education

High school diploma or GED

Tools

LifeFile

Microsoft Excel

Google Sheets

Microsoft Teams

Google Chat

Job description

Position Summary

The Escalation Pharmacy Technician assists the Escalation Team Lead and Escalation Pharmacist by monitoring the approved escalation chat, organizing incoming requests, obtaining order status, coordinating follow-up, and maintaining visibility until each request is resolved. This technician serves as the communication hub for the Escalation Team and helps prevent requests from being missed, duplicated, or left without ownership.

Essential Responsibilities

Escalation Chat Monitoring

Continuously monitor the approved escalation chat during the assigned shift and acknowledge new requests promptly.

Review each message for the patient or order reference, requesting party, urgency, stated concern, current status, and required action.

Request missing nonclinical details needed to locate or triage the order while protecting patient information.

Identify potential patient-safety or clinical concerns and immediately alert the Escalation Pharmacist.

Prevent duplicate work by checking whether the request is already assigned, under review, or resolved.

Coordination and Tracking

Assign or route requests to the appropriate owner, including the Escalation Team Lead, Escalation Pharmacist, Fulfillment Corrections Technician, Data Entry Corrections Technician, or another operational department.

Maintain a real-time escalation tracker showing the request, priority, assigned owner, current status, next action, and follow-up time.

Follow up with assigned owners when updates are due or when an order is approaching a service or shipping deadline.

Communicate concise, factual status updates in the escalation chat and avoid providing clinical conclusions or unconfirmed completion times.

Verify that the requester receives a final update before the escalation is closed.

Handoff and Service Support

Prepare a complete end-of-shift handoff for all open escalations, including the responsible owner and next required action.

Escalate delayed, unassigned, high-risk, or repeatedly unresolved requests to the Escalation Team Lead and pharmacist.

Support VIP clinic service by highlighting urgent interruptions, aging orders, and time-sensitive shipping concerns.

Identify repeated escalation themes and share them with leadership to support workflow improvement and team education.

Follow approved communication standards and keep protected information within authorized systems and channels.

Required Qualifications

High school diploma or General Educational Development (GED) certificate required

Active pharmacy technician registration or license in good standing, as required by the applicable state.

Minimum of 2 years of professional experience in pharmacy operations involving prescription processing, order fulfillment, order-status tracking, or pharmacy service coordination.

Demonstrated experience using pharmacy management or prescription workflow software to locate prescriptions, review order status, document updates, and track outstanding requests (e.g., LifeFile or a comparable pharmacy system).

Proficiency with Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets to maintain escalation trackers, including updating assigned owners, priorities, status, next actions, and follow-up deadlines.

Experience using Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, or a comparable approved messaging platform to monitor requests, communicate status updates, and coordinate cross-functional follow-up.

Working knowledge of prescription processing workflows, pharmacy documentation standards, HIPAA patient privacy requirements, and procedures for referring clinical concerns to a pharmacist.

Demonstrated ability to document accurate, concise written updates; identify missing order information; prevent duplicate requests; and complete shift handoffs with clear next steps.

Ability to prioritize simultaneous, time-sensitive requests, follow up on unresolved orders, and elevate patient-safety or service-deadline concerns according to established procedures.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience in compounding, specialty, mail-order, fulfillment, or high-volume pharmacy operations.

Experience using LifeFile or another pharmacy management platform for order tracking, corrections, or escalation management.

Experience coordinating prescription-order issues across data entry, fulfillment, shipping, pharmacy verification, and customer service teams.

Experience maintaining escalation logs, service-level follow-up schedules, or shared operational trackers and identifying recurring workflow issues.

Performance Expectations

Incoming escalation messages are acknowledged, triaged, and assigned promptly.

Every active escalation has a clear owner, documented status, next action, and follow-up time.

Status updates are accurate, concise, professional, and limited to confirmed information.

Open requests receive a complete shift handoff, and resolved requests receive documented closure.

Urgent and clinical concerns are elevated to the appropriate pharmacist or leader without delay.

Role Boundaries

This position supports operational correction and escalation activities within the pharmacy technician's authorized scope. The technician may not independently change prescription information, resolve clinical questions, override pharmacist decisions, or communicate clinical determinations. Questions involving therapy, prescription interpretation, prescriber clarification, patient safety, or professional judgment must be escalated to a pharmacist.

Monday thru Friday 6-2:30 & 9-5:30pm