What liability does the physician practice assume by dispensing medications in the office?
The liability is the same for writing a prescription. The “risk” of the prescription being filled correctly is reduced by your staff dispensing the medication directly to your patient vs. hoping the pharmacy dispenses the correct medication. In “Point of Care” dispensing, there are more stringent guidelines concerning packaging and labeling of the re-packaged medications than the pharmacist filling the prescription. It is safer for a patient to receive a pre-packaged medication from you than it is to receive a filled prescription from a pharmacy. In-office dispensing does NOT affect your medical malpractice insurance.
