Virginia Code 54.1-3408.01: Requirements for prescriptions
A. The written prescription referred to in § 54.1-3408 shall be written with ink or individually typed or printed. The prescription shall contain the name, address, and telephone number of the prescriber. A prescription for a controlled substance other than one controlled in Schedule VI shall also contain the federal controlled substances registration number assigned to the prescriber. The prescriber’s information shall be either preprinted upon the prescription blank, electronically printed, typewritten, rubber stamped, or printed by hand.
Terms Used In Virginia Code 54.1-3408.01
- Administer: means the direct application of a controlled substance, whether by injection, inhalation, ingestion, or any other means, to the body of a patient or research subject by (i) a practitioner or by his authorized agent and under his direction or (ii) the patient or research subject at the direction and in the presence of the practitioner. See Virginia Code 54.1-3401
- Adult: means a person 18 years of age or more. See Virginia Code 1-203
- Agent: means an authorized person who acts on behalf of or at the direction of a manufacturer, distributor, or dispenser. See Virginia Code 54.1-3401
- controlled substance: includes a controlled substance analog that has been placed into Schedule I or II by the Board pursuant to the regulatory authority in subsection D of § 54. See Virginia Code 54.1-3401
- Device: means instruments, apparatus, and contrivances, including their components, parts, and accessories, intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or animals or to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or animals. See Virginia Code 54.1-3401
- Dispenser: means a practitioner who dispenses. See Virginia Code 54.1-3401
- Drug: means (i) articles or substances recognized in the official United States Pharmacopoeia National Formulary or official Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States, or any supplement to any of them; (ii) articles or substances intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or animals; (iii) articles or substances, other than food, intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or animals; (iv) articles or substances intended for use as a component of any article specified in clause (i), (ii), or (iii); or (v) a biological product. See Virginia Code 54.1-3401
- Electronic prescription: means a written prescription that is generated on an electronic application and is transmitted to a pharmacy as an electronic data file; Schedule II through V prescriptions shall be transmitted in accordance with 21 C. See Virginia Code 54.1-3401
- Nuclear medicine technologist: means an individual who holds a current certification with the American Registry of Radiological Technologists or the Nuclear Medicine Technology Certification Board. See Virginia Code 54.1-3401
- Prescriber: means a practitioner who is authorized pursuant to §§ 54. See Virginia Code 54.1-3401
- Prescription: means an order for drugs or medical supplies, written or signed or transmitted by word of mouth, telephone, telegraph, or other means of communication to a pharmacist by a duly licensed physician, dentist, veterinarian, or other practitioner authorized by law to prescribe and administer such drugs or medical supplies. See Virginia Code 54.1-3401
- Radiopharmaceutical: means any drug that exhibits spontaneous disintegration of unstable nuclei with the emission of nuclear particles or photons and includes any non-radioactive reagent kit or radionuclide generator that is intended to be used in the preparation of any such substance, but does not include drugs such as carbon-containing compounds or potassium-containing salts that include trace quantities of naturally occurring radionuclides. See Virginia Code 54.1-3401
- State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
The written prescription shall contain the first and last name of the patient for whom the drug is prescribed. The address of the patient shall either be placed upon the written prescription by the prescriber or his agent, or by the dispenser of the prescription. If the prescriber is providing expedited partner therapy pursuant to § 54.1-3303 and the contact patient’s name and address are unavailable, then “Expedited Partner Therapy” or “EPT” shall be affixed on the written prescription, in lieu of the contact patient’s name and address. If not otherwise prohibited by law, the dispenser may record the address of the patient in an electronic prescription dispensing record for that patient in lieu of recording it on the prescription. Each written prescription shall be dated as of, and signed by the prescriber on, the day when issued. The prescription may be prepared by an agent for the prescriber’s signature.
This section shall not prohibit a prescriber from using preprinted prescriptions for drugs classified in Schedule VI if all requirements concerning dates, signatures, and other information specified above are otherwise fulfilled.
No written prescription order form shall include more than one prescription. However, this provision shall not apply (i) to prescriptions written as chart orders for patients in hospitals and long-term-care facilities, patients receiving home infusion services or hospice patients, or (ii) to a prescription ordered through a pharmacy operated by or for the Department of Corrections or the Department of Juvenile Justice, the central pharmacy of the Department of Health, or the central outpatient pharmacy operated by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services; or (iii) to prescriptions written for patients residing in adult and juvenile detention centers, local or regional jails, or work release centers operated by the Department of Corrections.
B. Prescribers’ orders, whether written as chart orders or prescriptions, for Schedules II, III, IV, and V controlled drugs to be administered to (i) patients or residents of long-term care facilities served by a Virginia pharmacy from a remote location or (ii) patients receiving parenteral, intravenous, intramuscular, subcutaneous or intraspinal infusion therapy and served by a home infusion pharmacy from a remote location, may be transmitted to that remote pharmacy by an electronic communications device over telephone lines which send the exact image to the receiver in hard copy form, and such facsimile copy shall be treated as a valid original prescription order. If the order is for a radiopharmaceutical, a physician authorized by state or federal law to possess and administer medical radioactive materials may authorize a nuclear medicine technologist to transmit a prescriber’s verbal or written orders for radiopharmaceuticals.
C. The oral prescription referred to in § 54.1-3408 shall be transmitted to the pharmacy of the patient’s choice by the prescriber or his authorized agent. For the purposes of this section, an authorized agent of the prescriber shall be an employee of the prescriber who is under his immediate and personal supervision, or if not an employee, an individual who holds a valid license allowing the administration or dispensing of drugs and who is specifically directed by the prescriber.
2000, cc. 135, 861; 2002, c. 411; 2003, c. 639; 2006, c. 195; 2009, cc. 813, 840; 2020, c. 464.