Professional Practice Policies are Changing Vol 38 No 2 - April/May 2013 | May. 30, 2013 Professional Practice Policies

At the February Board meeting the College made changes to three Professional Practice Policies: PPP-31, PPP-3, and PPP-16. Please take a few minutes to review these changes in their entirety by clicking here.

EMERGENCY PRESCRIPTION REFILLS

Changes have been made to PPP-31 (Emergency Prescription Refills). The revised professional practice policy now sets out five fundamentals that you should follow when using your professional judgement to dispense an emergency refill and also provides you the ability to dispense when the ‘prescriber not authorized’ or ‘prescriber not found’ messages are returned to you on PharmaNet.
 
5 fundamentals to emergency refills

• Individual Competence
• Appropriate Information
• Appropriateness
• Informed Consent
• Documentation

The fundamentals provide a framework in which you can effectively determine whether it is appropriate for you to provide an emergency refill. For example, do you have the necessary knowledge and understanding of both the patient’s condition and the drug being dispensed? Do you know enough about the patient or whether the circumstances warrant an emergency refill? The five fundamentals provide a guide to help you determine whether you should provide an emergency refill.

The fundamentals are also a tool to help you better document your decision-making process, ensuring not only safer care for your patients, but also to ensure that your decision-making process is documented in the event of a liability issue or a complaint to the College. We can’t stress enough the importance of proper documentation.

It is important to note that this policy is designed only to allow time to contact the prescriber for authorization, or to find another prescriber who is authorized. Emergency refills are designed to be the exception to the rule, and not normal practice.

Important to note: Read warnings on PharmaNet carefully! The patient may be on the Restricted Claimants Program, the prescriber authorization may have been removed by the relevant Health College, or a warning popping up that may impact on your decision to do an emergency refill.

GLUCOSE AND CHOLESTEROL TESTING BY PHARMACISTS

The College is removing PPP-16 (Glucose and Cholesterol Testing by Pharmacists) as a professional practice policy. There is no legal impediment to pharmacists or pharmacy technicians in choosing to administer these tests and the tests are indeed often self-administered by patients on their own. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are therefore free to perform these tests on patients if they have knowledge, skills, and abilities to do so in a safe and effective manner. The policy was put in place prior to the transition to the Health Professions Act in 2009 and at a time when pharmacists were not providing the additional services they are today.

PHARMACY REFERENCES

Professional Practice Policy 3 (Pharmacy References) has been amended to reflect the reality that pharmacies dispense veterinary prescriptions from time to time. The College believes it is important to have veterinary references on hand (Merck Veterinary Manual) either in hardcopy or online format.

The College has also amended the policy to reflect our general philosophy that in addition to the required references, pharmacists should also have access to any references that are relevant to their practice.

For further details about changes to the Professional Practice Policies please click here.