LESSON 4
FILLING THE PRESCRIPTION
Section I. PERSONNEL AUTHORIZED TO FILL/REFILL THE PRESCRIPTION
4-1.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
a. The commander is responsible for the operation of the pharmacy. The
commander will exercise careful supervision over all phases of the pharmacy's
operations, including employment of recognized professional procedures and
establishment and aggressive pursuit of such policies as are considered desirable to
ensure conformity with the highest standards of the pharmaceutical profession.
b. The officer in charge of the pharmacy will be either a graduate of a
recognized school or college of pharmacy in one of the States of the United States,
Puerto Rico, or the District of Columbia, or when no commissioned officer who is a
pharmacist is on duty at the facility, an officer of the Medical Corps.
c. The officer in charge of the pharmacy is charged with the duties of
recognizing, identifying, selecting, preparing, safeguarding, testing, evaluating, and
dispensing all substances of whatever kind and combination are used in preventative or
curative medicine. The officer in charge of the pharmacy and his assistants will be
responsible for keeping abreast of new developments in the field of pharmacy, and for
passing on information about these developments to the professional personnel they
serve.
4-2.
PERSONNEL IN THE PHARMACY
a. The officer in charge of the pharmacy will carefully screen all personnel
assigned to the pharmacy to ensure that only qualified persons are permitted to
compound or dispense drugs or pharmaceutical preparations of any kind. To the fullest
extent possible, only persons who are graduates of accredited civilian pharmacy
schools or specialists who have successfully completed a course of instruction at the
pharmacy specialist course of the Armed Services, or a pharmacy course of equivalent
scope, will be assigned professional or technical duties in the pharmacy. One or more
graduate licensed pharmacists shall be assigned primary duty at all large military
pharmacies at medical treatment facilities where the range, variety, and complexity of
drugs dispensed require a high degree of professional competence and supervision. At
all such medical treatment facility pharmacies, drugs will be dispensed by graduate
licensed pharmacists. At other installations where the use of a full time graduate
licensed pharmacist would not be justified, pharmacies may be operated:
(1) By part-time basis officers who are graduate licensed pharmacists, but
who are assigned other primary duties.
MD0810
4-2