(a) Any handwritten prescription order for a drug prepared by an optometrist who is authorized by law to prescribe a drug must be legible so that it is comprehensible by the pharmacist who fills the prescription. The handwritten prescription order must contain the name of the prescribing optometrist, the name and strength of the drug prescribed, the quantity of the drug prescribed, handwritten in letters or in numerals, instructions for the proper use of the drug, and the month and day that the prescription order was issued, recorded in letters or in numerals or a combination thereof. The prescribing optometrist must sign the handwritten prescription order on the day it is issued, unless it is a standing order issued in a hospital, a nursing home or an assisted care living facility as defined in § 68-11-201.
Optometrist: means a person who is engaged in the practice of optometry as defined. See Tennessee Code 63-8-102
Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
State: means any of the fifty (50) states of the union, the District of Columbia and territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 63-8-102
United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(b) Any typed or computer-generated prescription order for a drug issued by an optometrist who is authorized by law to prescribe a drug must be legible so that it is comprehensible by the pharmacist who fills the prescription order. The typed or computer-generated prescription order must contain the name of the prescribing optometrist, the name and strength of the drug prescribed, the quantity of the drug prescribed, recorded in letters or in numerals, instructions for the proper use of the drug, and the month and day that the typed or computer-generated prescription order was issued, recorded in letters or in numerals or a combination thereof. The prescribing optometrist must sign the typed or computer-generated prescription order on the day it is issued, unless it is a standing order issued in a hospital, nursing home or an assisted care living facility as defined in § 68-11-201.(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent an optometrist from issuing a verbal prescription order.(d)(1) All handwritten, typed or computer-generated prescription orders must be issued on either tamper-resistant prescription paper or printed utilizing a technology that results in a tamper-resistant prescription that meets the current centers for medicare and medicaid service guidance to state medicaid directors regarding § 7002(b) of the United States Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act of 2007, P.L. 110-28, and meets or exceeds specific TennCare requirements for tamper-resistant prescriptions.(2) Subdivision (d)(1) shall not apply to prescriptions written for inpatients of a hospital, outpatients of a hospital where the doctor or other person authorized to write prescriptions writes the order into the hospital medical record and then the order is given directly to the hospital pharmacy and the patient never has the opportunity to handle the written order, a nursing home or an assisted care living facility as defined in § 68-11-201 or inpatients or residents of a mental health hospital or residential facility licensed under title 33 or individuals incarcerated in a local, state or federal correctional facility.
