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PRP Insights: Prescription Transmission to Community Pharmacies
During Pharmacy Reviews, Compliance Officers review a sample of prescriptions to ensure pharmacy professionals are aware of prescription requirements. In addition to checking that prescriptions include all of the required components as outlined in Health Professions Act Bylaws Schedule F Part 1 s. 6, Compliance Officers also check that prescriptions have been received in a manner that is permitted by the College’s bylaws. 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.
Currently, the acceptable ways for pharmacy professionals to receive prescriptions include:
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*For additional regulations around verbal and faxed transmission of narcotic and/or CPP prescriptions, please refer to the Prescription Regulations Table or the PODSA Bylaws and HPA Bylaws Schedule F Part 1. |
Common Observations for Non-Compliant Prescription Transmission
Prescriptions sent via email or text
At this time, the only permissible form of electronic transmission is through facsimile, directly from the practitioner. Prescriptions sent via email or text message from the practitioner to the pharmacy or patient are not acceptable. The main concerns around emailing and texting prescriptions revolve around the security of the transmission and the potential for multiple copies to be produced. Pharmacy professionals must always consider security whenever communications involve confidential patient information. This also extends beyond prescription transmission. Pharmacies that use email or text to communicate patient information must also consider that the transmission of information may not always be secure.
Faxed prescriptions sent by a third-party
As noted in HPA Bylaws Schedule F Part 1 (Community Pharmacy Standards of Practice), prescriptions may be received by facsimile from a practitioner to a pharmacy. This means that faxed prescriptions must come directly from a practitioner. If another party (e.g. patient, patient support program, etc.) faxes a prescription to a pharmacy, this would not be acceptable as the fax has not come directly from the practitioner. Ensuring that faxed prescriptions have been received directly from the practitioner is important as this helps verify the authenticity of the prescription and reduces the potential for unauthorized alterations to occur. To help pharmacy professionals identify if a prescription has been sent by the practitioner, HPA Bylaws Schedule F Part 1 also require faxed prescriptions to include the following information:
- the practitioner's telephone number, facsimile number and unique identifier if applicable,
- the time and date of transmission, and
- the name and fax number of the pharmacy intended to receive the transmission.
The required information in (i) is commonly included by the practitioner on a cover page or in the fax transmission line.
The rules above also apply to pharmacies who are trying to send a faxed prescription they received to another pharmacy of the patient’s choice. If a patient does not want to fill their prescription at the pharmacy who initially received the fax from the practitioner, the correct way to proceed with this would be as a prescription transfer, in accordance with the requirements of HPA Bylaws Schedule F Part 1 s. 8. In some cases, Compliance Officers have noted that pharmacies simply send the prescription by re-faxing it to the other pharmacy but again, this would not meet the requirement as the fax has now been sent by a third-party, a pharmacy, rather than the practitioner.
Photocopies or pictures of the original prescription
If a practitioner has issued a written prescription to a patient, the pharmacy must receive the original in order to dispense to the patient. Copies of prescriptions, such as photocopies or printed photos of the original are not acceptable as they increase the potential for multiple copies to be produced and dispensed at different pharmacies.
As many practitioners have transitioned to electronic medical record software for generating and signing prescriptions, it has become even more important that pharmacy professionals review prescriptions for signs of photocopying. Photocopying can be used to conceal prescription alterations so pharmacy professionals must remain vigilant in evaluating physical prescriptions for inconsistencies and signs of tampering.
To learn more about the Practice Review Program, including how to prepare for your review, visit:
bcpharmacists.org/prp