Share
Managing Return-to-Stock Medications
Occasionally, in community pharmacy practice, prescription products are prepared, but not picked up by the patient or the patient’s representative. During Pharmacy Practice Reviews, Compliance Officers observe how these medications and accompanying patient information are managed. Prescriptions that have not been picked up within 30 days of the original entry date should be reversed in accordance with PODSA Bylaw, Part VI, Section 21(5) which states:
“A registrant must reverse information in the PharmaNet database, for any drug that is not released to the patient or the patient’s representative, and record the reason for the reversal no later than 30 days from the date of the original entry of the prescription information in PharmaNet.”
What to do when a patient fails to pick-up a balance owing?
Pharmacies are sometimes unable to fill prescriptions in their entirety due to stock availability. If a patient fails to pick up the balance owing of the prescription within 90 days of the original fill date, their PharmaNet entry must be corrected to reflect the actual amount received by the patient as opposed to the original amount billed as per PODSA Bylaw, Part VI, Section 21(4) which stipulates that:
“A registrant must revise information in the PharmaNet database pertaining to corrected billings for prescriptions billed to the patient or a payment agency other than PharmaCare and record the reason for the revision within 90 days of the original entry on PharmaNet.”
Registrants are responsible for ensuring that dispensed medications will be used up completely before their expiration date, if used in accordance with the prescribed directions. This responsibility means that if a medication is returned to stock, the product should be labelled with the manufacturer’s expiry date if it is no longer in the original packaging. As always, security measures to protect the personal information of the patient should be taken into consideration. If there is any patient information on the packaging of the returned-to-stock medication, this should be removed or made unreadable before returning to stock.
It is important to note that this is only applicable to prescriptions that have not left a community pharmacy. Prescriptions that have left the pharmacy cannot be returned to stock as per PODSA Bylaw, Part I, Section 7:
“No registrant may accept for return to stock or reuse any drug previously dispensed except in accordance with section 11(3) of the Residential Care Facilities and Homes Standards of Practice or section 5(2) of the Hospital Pharmacy Standards of Practice.”
- Practice Review Program, PRP Insights