Connecticut General Statutes 20-609a – Use of electronic technology or telepharmacy by hospital. Quality assurance evaluations
(a) As used in this section:
Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes 20-609a
- Administration: means the direct application of a drug or device to the body of a patient or research subject by injection, inhalation, ingestion or any other means. See Connecticut General Statutes 20-571
- Department: means the Department of Consumer Protection. See Connecticut General Statutes 20-571
- Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
- Dispense: means those acts of processing a drug or device for delivery or for administration for a patient pursuant to a prescription consisting of: (A) Comparing the directions on the label with the directions on the prescription to determine accuracy. See Connecticut General Statutes 20-571
- Drug: means (A) an article recognized in the official United States Pharmacopoeia, official Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States or official National Formulary, or any supplement to any of them, (B) an article intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease in humans or other animals, (C) an article, other than food, intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of humans or any other animal, and (D) an article intended for use as a component of any article specified in this subdivision, but does not include a device. See Connecticut General Statutes 20-571
- Pharmacist: means an individual who is licensed to practice pharmacy under the provisions of §. See Connecticut General Statutes 20-571
- Pharmacy: means a place of business where drugs and devices may be sold at retail and for which a pharmacy license has been issued to an applicant under the provisions of §. See Connecticut General Statutes 20-571
- Pharmacy technician: means an individual who is registered with the department and qualified in accordance with §. See Connecticut General Statutes 20-571
- to practice pharmacy: means the sum total of knowledge, understanding, judgments, procedures, securities, controls and ethics used by a pharmacist to assure optimal safety and accuracy in the distributing, dispensing and use of drugs and devices. See Connecticut General Statutes 20-571
(1) “Electronic technology” or “telepharmacy” means the process: (A) By which each step involved in the dispensing of a sterile product is verified through use of a bar code tracking system and documented by means of digital photographs which are electronically recorded and preserved; and (B) which is monitored and verified through video and audio communication between a licensed supervising pharmacist and a pharmacy technician;
(2) “Sterile product” means any drug, as that term is defined in § 20-571, that is compounded, manipulated or otherwise prepared under sterile conditions during the dispensing process, is not intended for self-administration by a patient and is intended to be used in a hospital, or its satellite, remote or affiliated office-based locations;
(3) “Pharmacist” means an individual who is licensed to practice pharmacy under the provisions of § 20-590, 20-591, 20-592 or 20-593 and who is thereby recognized as a health care provider by the state of Connecticut; and
(4) “Pharmacy technician” means an individual who is registered with the department and qualified in accordance with § 20-598a.
(b) A hospital, licensed in accordance with the provisions of chapter 368v, which operates a hospital pharmacy, may use electronic technology or telepharmacy at the hospital and at the hospital’s satellite or remote locations for purposes of allowing a pharmacist to supervise pharmacy technicians in the dispensing of sterile products. Notwithstanding the provisions of this chapter or regulations adopted pursuant to this chapter, a pharmacist shall be permitted to supervise a pharmacy technician through use of electronic technology, and under such supervision the pharmacist shall monitor and verify the activities of a pharmacy technician through audio and video communication. The pharmacist-to-technician ratio pursuant to § 20-576-33 of the regulations of Connecticut state agencies shall apply. In the event of a malfunction of the electronic technology, no sterile product prepared by a pharmacy technician during the time period of the malfunction may be distributed to patients, unless a licensed pharmacist is able to: (1) Personally review and verify the accuracy of all processes utilized in the dispensing of the sterile product; or (2) upon the restoration of the electronic technology, utilize the mechanisms of the electronic technology which recorded the actions of the pharmacy technician to confirm that all proper steps were followed in the dispensing of the sterile product. All orders for sterile products to be dispensed using telepharmacy shall be verified by a pharmacist prior to being delegated to a pharmacy technician for such dispensing. A hospital shall ensure that appropriately licensed personnel administer medications dispensed using telepharmacy. All of the processes involved in a hospital’s use of telepharmacy shall be under the purview of the hospital’s director of pharmacy.
(c) A hospital using telepharmacy shall undertake periodic quality assurance evaluations, not less than once per calendar quarter, which shall include, upon discovery, prompt review of any error in medication administration which occurs where telepharmacy is used to dispense such medication. A hospital shall make such quality assurance evaluations available for review and inspection by the Departments of Consumer Protection and Public Health.