2006 Code of Virginia § 54.1-3408.01 - Requirements for prescriptions

54.1-3408.01. Requirements for prescriptions.

A. The written prescription referred to in 54.1-3408 shall be written withink or individually typed or printed. The prescription shall contain thename, address, and telephone number of the prescriber. A prescription for acontrolled substance other than one controlled in Schedule VI shall alsocontain the federal controlled substances registration number assigned to theprescriber. The prescriber's information shall be either preprinted upon theprescription blank, electronically printed, typewritten, rubber stamped, orprinted by hand.

The written prescription shall contain the first and last name of the patientfor whom the drug is prescribed. The address of the patient shall either beplaced upon the written prescription by the prescriber or his agent, or bythe dispenser of the prescription. If not otherwise prohibited by law, thedispenser may record the address of the patient in an electronic prescriptiondispensing record for that patient in lieu of recording it on theprescription. Each written prescription shall be dated as of, and signed bythe prescriber on, the day when issued. The prescription may be prepared byan agent for the prescriber's signature.

This section shall not prohibit a prescriber from using preprintedprescriptions for drugs classified in Schedule VI if all requirementsconcerning dates, signatures, and other information specified above areotherwise fulfilled.

No written prescription order form shall include more than one prescription.However, this provision shall not apply (i) to prescriptions written as chartorders for patients in hospitals and long-term-care facilities, patientsreceiving home infusion services or hospice patients, or (ii) to aprescription ordered through a pharmacy operated by or for the Department ofCorrections or the Department of Juvenile Justice, the central pharmacy ofthe Department of Health, or the central outpatient pharmacy operated by theDepartment of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services;or (iii) to prescriptions written for patients residing in adult and juveniledetention centers, local or regional jails, or work release centers operatedby the Department of Corrections.

B. Prescribers' orders, whether written as chart orders or prescriptions, forSchedules II, III, IV and V controlled drugs to be administered to (i)patients or residents of long-term care facilities served by a Virginiapharmacy from a remote location or (ii) patients receiving parenteral,intravenous, intramuscular, subcutaneous or intraspinal infusion therapy andserved by a home infusion pharmacy from a remote location, may be transmittedto that remote pharmacy by an electronic communications device over telephonelines which send the exact image to the receiver in hard copy form, and suchfacsimile copy shall be treated as a valid original prescription order. Ifthe order is for a radiopharmaceutical, a physician authorized by state orfederal law to possess and administer medical radioactive materials mayauthorize a nuclear medicine technologist to transmit a prescriber's verbalor written orders for radiopharmaceuticals.

C. The oral prescription referred to in 54.1-3408 shall be transmitted tothe pharmacy of the patient's choice by the prescriber or his authorizedagent. For the purposes of this section, an authorized agent of theprescriber shall be an employee of the prescriber who is under his immediateand personal supervision, or if not an employee, an individual who holds avalid license allowing the administration or dispensing of drugs and who isspecifically directed by the prescriber.

(2000, cc. 135, 861; 2002, c. 411; 2003, c. 639; 2006, c. 195.)