Pharmacy Technician - Outpatient and Controlled Substances

Veterans Health Administration; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 74,000 - 96,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid Time Off

Parental Leave

Federal retirement benefits and 401K

Job summary

The Veterans Health Administration in Washington, DC seeks a Pharmacy Technician - Outpatient & Controlled Substances. This certified technician will spend part of their time supporting controlled substance management and the rest in outpatient pharmacy operations, including VA and non-VA prescriptions.

Key duties include preparing, filling, and dispensing controlled substances; conducting regular inventories; assisting with inspections; managing procurement and stock; ensuring accurate

Qualifications

• Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment.
• If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education.

Responsibilities

• Prepare, fill, and dispense controlled substances and other closely regulated medications according to policies and procedures.
• Conduct regularly scheduled inventories every 72 hours and daily if needed according to regulations and policies.
• Assist the Controlled Substance Compliance Inspectors to complete the monthly inspections.
• Coordinate and manage the procurement of prescription and non-prescription drug products and supplies, maintaining a comprehensive knowledge of the procurement and formulary process.

Job description

Pharmacy Technician - Outpatient and Controlled Substances

• Department: Department of Veterans Affairs
• Location: Washington, District of Columbia

The Pharmacy Technician - Outpatient & Controlled Substances is a certified, highly specialized technician that will spend a portion of their time supporting controlled substance management and the rest of their time in outpatient pharmacy operations which may include prescriptions from VA and non-VA providers.

Key Responsibilities

Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional Major duties include, but are not limited to: Prepare, fill, and dispense controlled substance and other closely regulated medications according to policies and procedures. Conduct regularly scheduled inventories every 72 hours and daily if needed according to regulations and policies. Assist the Controlled Substance Compliance Inspectors to complete the monthly inspections.

Effectively coordinates, manages, completes, and documents the purchasing of all prescription and non-prescription drug products and supplies by maintaining a comprehensive knowledge of the procurement and formulary process. Maintains, verifies, stocks, and replaces outdated CS medications from stock - including inpatient wards, inpatient/outpatient storage cabinets, vaults.

Maintains accurate electronic inventory through decrementing prescriptions, entering received inventory, transferring to automated dispensing cabinets, dispensing on green sheets, and transferring to other dispensing vaults. Follows policies and procedures for handling the destruction and return of controlled substance medication.

Works with pharmacy procurement personnel by providing information regarding medications and supplies needed from the warehouse or wholesaler based on items used. Assists, reviews, and makes recommendation in inventory control of controlled substances. Monitors, analyzes orders, and usage/distribution patterns for questionable circumstances or unusual trends. Communicates potential problems to the Pharmacy Manager.

Provides training for pharmacists, interns, technicians, inspectors, students, and others in controlled substance accountability procedures. Prepares, operates, restocks, and maintains complex automated dispensing cabinets and all necessary equipment supporting pharmaceutical patient care functions. Maintains file of hard copy of hand-written CII-V prescriptions.

Resolves inventory discrepancies immediately when discovered by reviewing reports and contacting appropriate persons when needed. Reports discrepancies to pharmacy supervisor for follow up.

Ensures all controlled substances procedures abide by all local requirements, VISN, OIG and VHA handbook expectations and requirements, The Joint Commission (TJC) standards, VACO directives, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) requirements, appropriate inventory management practices, and other state and local requirements that apply.

Maintains security of controlled substances by controlling access to storage areas, and by ensuring that controlled substances are always kept in the locked, supervised area, specifically designated for controlled substance storage. Assembles prescriptions properly with the correct drug, strength, quantity, auxiliary labels, and prescription labels. for window dispensing and mail delivery.

Supports automation by manually completing prescriptions not processed through the automation dispensing machine. Verifies that the patient receives the correct prescriptions by using VA software (i.e., VISTA and barcode scanning). Utilizes and comprehends the mail shipping programs used by the facility (i.e., USPS, FedEx, UPS, etc.) for overnight delivery of noncontrolled and controlled prescriptions.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00am -4:30pm EST ; rotating holidays Recruitment/Relocation Incentives (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized. Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases. When setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of higher or unique qualifications or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade).

Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year). Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child.

Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66.

Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement) Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #:000000 Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Requirements & Education

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education.

For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Which agency is hiring for this position?

This position is with Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs.

What is the salary for this position?

The posted pay range is $73517 – $95568/yr.

What is the application deadline?

Applications close on 2026-10-08.

Who is eligible to apply?

This position is open under the 'Fed Internal Search' hiring path.