(a) Every pharmacy shall establish a quality assurance program that shall, at a minimum, document medication errors attributable, in whole or in part, to the pharmacy or its personnel. The purpose of the quality assurance program shall be to assess errors that occur in the pharmacy in dispensing or furnishing prescription medications so that the pharmacy may take appropriate action to prevent a recurrence.

(b) Records generated for and maintained as a component of a pharmacy’s ongoing quality assurance program shall be considered peer review documents and not subject to discovery in any arbitration, civil, or other proceeding, except as provided hereafter. That privilege shall not prevent review of a pharmacy’s quality assurance program and records maintained as part of that system by the board as necessary to protect the public health and safety or if fraud is alleged by a government agency with jurisdiction over the pharmacy. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit a patient from accessing his or her own prescription records. Nothing in this section shall affect the discoverability of any records not solely generated for and maintained as a component of a pharmacy’s ongoing quality assurance program.

Terms Used In California Business and Professions Code 4125

  • board: means any entity listed in Section 101, the entities referred to in Sections 1000 and 3600, the State Bar, the Department of Real Estate, and any other state agency that issues a license, certificate, or registration authorizing a person to engage in a business or profession. See California Business and Professions Code 31
  • Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
  • Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.

(c) This section shall become operative on January 1, 2002.

(Added by Stats. 2000, Ch. 677, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2001. Section operative January 1, 2002, by its own provisions.)

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