A Letter to Prescribers

Dear Prescriber,

We are writing to let you know that effective 1/1/14, our pharmacy will no longer accept prescriptions that are not compliant with all State and Federal Laws. If you hand a patient a prescription to take to the pharmacy and it is out of compliance, it will be returned to you for correction. Please take the time to ensure accuracy and completion prior to handing it to the patient. Due to the overwhelming increase in the number of incomplete, invalid, inaccurate, and mistake-prone prescriptions being presented to our pharmacy, we can no longer afford the time and manpower to call every office seeking corrections. In an effort to do our jobs more efficiently and focus on the practice of pharmacy with Drug Utilization Reviews, Interaction Checks, and all the duties our own profession requires, we ask that you do your job and make the prescriptions you write complete.

All prescriptions must include the following:
Patient Name (full name, no initials)
Drug Name
Drug Strength
Dosage Form
Correct, Valid Directions
Quantity to be Dispensed (written and spelled for controls)
Prescriber Signature
DEA (for controls)
Prescriber address and phone number
Date of Issuance

Again, should any of this information be missing or incomplete, the patient will return to your office for correction. We will keep copies of these in the pharmacy. For every 10 incorrect prescriptions we receive from your office, we will send them to the State Boards of Pharmacy and Medicine. The State Pharmacy Board fines pharmacies for accepting your invalid prescriptions. As of 1/1/14, we shall no longer shoulder this burden.

Thank you in advance.
Sincerely,
CP