On July 18, the State Pharmacy Commission released a draft emergency rule to allow hospitals to extend their pharmacy license to owned clinics for the purpose of transferring medications. The commission will consider approving the emergency rule at a special meeting from 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. July 29. The web meeting is open to the public. Register here.
We appreciate the work done by the commission to specify new ways to allow licensure for clinics, but plan to express our concerns about some of its provisions. The proposed rule limits hospitals’ ability to transfer medications directly to a provider in a hospital-owned clinic. This has been a long-standing practice and is important to ensuring access to essential medications. We hope the commission will revise the rules so this practice is allowed to continue. We will also encourage the commission to further refine components of the rule to allow for “immediate use compounding” and develop a clear implementation strategy.
This emergency rule is in response to SB 5460 and SB 6558, which directed the commission to establish rules to allow hospitals to transfer essential medications to owned clinics. (Ian Corbridge)