A practitioner’s signature is an important component of a prescription that assists registrants in determining the authenticity of a prescription. With electronic prescribing software becoming more commonplace, registrants are seeing an increase in electronically generated prescriptions and oftentimes, these are signed with electronic signatures. As registrants may be more accustomed to receiving prescriptions that are signed pen-to-paper, there have been some questions around the acceptability of this practice. In this article, we hope to provide some clarity on the requirements around electronic signatures.
Pharmacists in BC have been providing minor ailment and contraception prescribing services under PPMAC since June 2023. To ensure compliance with the regulatory standards that enable and govern this practice, Compliance Officers have been reviewing PPMAC services while conducting Community Pharmacy Practice Reviews since October 2023.
To improve compliance and awareness of the standards, a previous article was published that highlighted some early observations of non-compliance under the PPMAC framework. This article is a follow-up installment to share additional examples of non-compliance that have been observed by Compliance Officers.