e-Profile Login and ID Quick Search
North Carolina News: Item 2134 - Board Staff Receiving Complaints from Physicians about Refill Authorization Faxes
Reprinted from the April 2007 North Carolina Board of Pharmacy Newsletter.
Several physicians in North Carolina have complained to the Board about the volume and nature of refill authorization faxes transmitted to their practices. These faxes, examples of which appear to be automatically generated, are causing at least two problems in physicians’ offices. First, the sheer volume is overwhelming some practices. Second, the refill requests are often for medications that the physician has discontinued.
Board staff advises pharmacies that automatic refill requests of this nature can interfere with the physician-pharmacist relationship, with potentially negative consequences to patients. Moreover, generating refill requests for discontinued medications could result in a refill being inadvertently authorized by the physician and risking harm to the patient.
As a matter of basic professional courtesy and respect, Board staff strongly advises pharmacists to coordinate their refill authorizationrequest methods with physicians’ offices and to select a method that fits the particular practice and patients. One size does not fit all in this area.
