Question

You must write a minimum 1-page journal paper about one of the situations below. Discuss what different courses of action you could take in response and explore the consequences of each of those choices. There are no RIGHT answers to the first situation. The second option definitely has some things that may be wrong. :)

You're working at a retail pharmacy and you find a faxed prescription on the fax machine. The prescription is not for a controlled substance and looks like it's been computer generated from a hospital or doctor's clinic software. The prescription looks complete and has all of the correct information on it. One thing odd you notice about it is that it doesn't actually have a prescriber's signature on it. On the signature line of the fax prescription, it states "electronically signed by Dr. John Smith, MD". Granted, the decision on whether to fill this prescription is up to do the dispensing pharmacist (so you can't take that cop-out answer), but what should you do? Would this be a legitimate prescription in your state? What are some ways you could determine whether or not it is a legitimate prescription? What are some actions you could take to make it a legitimate prescription if you believe it isn't? What questions might you ask the patient if the doctor's office isn't available?

You just get your first job as a pharmacy technician at a retail pharmacy. You haven't completed your state's registration yet, but your employer wants you to start "training" immediately. Once you start, it becomes clear to you that your "training" involves actually performing work that only a registered tech should be doing. What are activities that your state restricts to registered technicians? What can you do in a pharmacy without being registered? What would the consequences be for you if you get caught? What would the consequences be for the pharmacy? Locate your state's Board of Pharmacy regulations online to answer these questions. Provide a link in your answer to the regulations you are referencing.

Answer 1

This is a legitimate prescription in my state .First of all the prescription is not made for a controlled substance means its made for a non controlled substance which are legal substances ,secondly the prescription is complete in all its aspects of mentioning the name of patient ,age , address , diagnosis ,name of the drug its dose, route , frequency, and thridly it is electronically signed by doctor who made the prescription. The odd thing noticed by the pharmacist is the electronic signature made by doctor. In this advanced technology usage world , healthcare sector are using their individual softwares to make the consultations , prescriptions ,MLC's ,death certificate etc which are all important document and is verified by the consulting doctor by his signature . Electronic signature are assigned to every individual login ID's of doctors which they use to verify the documents so that they does not have to sign the document again it printed out .

If it was a prescription made for controlled drugs then there might be need for a manual sign because login ID's can be used by anyone if they are asked to put the prescription in case when the doctor is busy with some other urgent work .

The pharmacist can counter check with the patient regarding the medicines prescribed and doctors name if doctors office is not available .

The activities which a registered pharmacy technician can do are :-

- preparation of medicine for patients

- recieving and verifying the prescription

- pricing and filling of prescription

- obtaining pharmacist's approval

- completing patient paperwork related to the filling of prescription

- Assisting with insurance claims processing

- Stocking and pricing of medications in inventory

- Ensuring availability of drugs by delivering them to patients and facilities.

- Maintaining pharmacy's safety by adhering to infection control procedures ,policies and regulations.

The tasks pharmacy technician is prohibited to do by law are:-

- performing final check for prescription

- perform counseling with the patients

If there is any prohibition of duties conducted by the pharmacy technician then strict actions are taken against them including cancellation of registration and a deposit amount of fine has to be paid . For the pharmacy ,its licence will be cancelled for not following the pharmacy regulations and some amount of fine has to be paid .

Reference - http:// www.pharmacyregulations .com

- http:// www. neuvoo.ca/ neuvoopedia /pharmacy

- http://www.cphm.ca

- http:// www.ocpinfo.com