Practice Review Program Insights: Retaining Prescriptions Vol 40 No 4 - June 2015 | Jun. 1, 2015 Practice Review Program, PRP Insights

The Practice Review Program is fully underway in community pharmacies across the province. As Compliance Officers conduct more practice reviews, they are noticing opportunities for the College to provide clarification to pharmacy professionals on selected areas of common concern.

The second installment of Practice Review Program Insights focuses on the requirements of retaining a prescription.

When conducting the Pharmacy Review, Compliance Officers have found that a number of pharmacies are not retaining prescriptions for the minimum required time period due to misinterpretation of the legislation.

The Pharmacy Operations and Drug Scheduling Act (PODSA) Bylaw section 8(1)(a) states that “All prescriptions, patient records, invoices and documentation in respect of the purchase, receipt or transfer of Schedule I, II and III drugs and controlled drug substances must be retained for a period of not less than three years from the date a drug referred to in a prescription was last dispensed.”  

Professional Practice Policy-12: Prescription Hard Copy File Coding System also states that “Prescriptions must be retained for a period of three years after their most recent activity, including refill transactions.”

Pharmacies are required to retain hard copies of all written prescriptions and a written record of verbal prescriptions for three years from the last dispensing date. Refills for all drugs – with the exception of oral contraceptives – are valid for a maximum of one year from the prescribing date and refills for oral contraceptives are valid for a maximum of two years from the prescribing date.

The date of last activity may be one or two years from the original dispensing date. When you add three years (as per the bylaw) to the date you last refilled a prescription, this can translate into keeping records for four years (one plus three) or five years (two plus three for oral contraceptives). At the time of destruction, if oral contraceptive prescriptions are not removed and retained, ALL prescription hard copies must be retained for a minimum of five years to meet the College of Pharmacists of BC requirements.

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