How B.C. pharmacists can (and can't) receive prescriptions

How can pharmacists receive prescriptions? The College of Pharmacists of British Columbia has summarized the rules after its compliance officers looked at prescription requirements during their pharmacy reviews. “The rules around prescription transmission exist to help ensure authenticity, prevent forgeries and to ensure that only one copy of a prescription exists at a time,” it said. There are three acceptable ways to receive prescriptions. The first is a written prescription brought to the pharmacy by the patient or patient representative. The pharmacy must have the original prescription, not a photocopy or printed photo of the original, as people could use multiple copies to have the drug dispensed at different pharmacies. Photocopying can also conceal prescription alterations. Read: What pharmacy owners in B.C. need to know about the new Pay Transparency ActMany practitioners have transitioned to electronic medical record software for generating and signing prescriptions. As a result, it’s even more critical that pharmacy staff review prescriptions for signs of photocopying. The second valid way to receive a prescription is through a verbal order from a practitioner, either received in person or through a recorded voice message from them. The third is through a fax that comes directly from the practitioner to the pharmacy. Faxes from a patient or third party, like a patient support program, aren’t acceptable. Receiving them directly from the practitioner helps verify the prescription’s authenticity and limits the potential for unauthorized alterations. Read: AHS embraces electronically faxed prescriptionsFaxed prescriptions must include the practitioner’s telephone number, fax number and unique identifier (if applicable), the date and time of transmission, and the pharmacy’s name and fax number. Pharmacies that have received a fax from a prescriber and want to transfer it to another pharmacy sometimes simply fax it to the other pharmacy, but this isn’t allowed. Instead, they have to do a prescription transfer. Pharmacists can’t accept prescriptions sent by email, text or other forms of electronic transmission. That’s because of concerns about the security of confidential patient information in those transmissions and the potential for multiple copies of the same prescription to be created.Read: Can pharmacists give patients a faxed prescription if they can’t fill it?

How B.C. pharmacists can (and can't) receive prescriptions

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