Do rules 10A NCAC 13F .1010(a) (PDF, 11 KB) and 10A NCAC 13G .1010(a) (PDF, 11 KB) restrict a residents choice of Pharmacy?
These rules do place some restriction on a resident’s choice of pharmacy if a pharmacist does not dispense medications in a way that enables the facility to administer medications according to its established medication administration policies and procedures. A facility having multiple systems of medication administration as a result of different pharmacies’ dispensing methods creates a greater chance of errors in medication administration. Since the facility is responsible for assuring safe administration and establishing policies and procedures to enable that, those policies and procedures can specify a system that requires medications to be dispensed in certain ways. Therefore, it is important that residents and responsible persons be made aware of the facility’s medication administration system and its impact on packaging of medications the facility is responsible for administering.
