Texas Pharmacy Law Practice Exam

A prescription with flavoring added should have a labeled beyond-use-date of no more than 14 days when stored in the fridge, unless otherwise specified. Flavoring can be added upon the patient’s, patient’s agent, or provider’s request. Flavoring cannot be added to over-the-counter medications.

Dangerous drugs returned to a pharmacy that are to be destroyed must have documentation that includes: dispensing pharmacy name and address, drug name and strength, prescription number (if applicable), and the pharmacist’s signature.

When TSBP initiates disciplinary action against an applicant or licensee, the first step is sending a Preliminary Notice Letter. The Preliminary Notice Letter should not be ignored, because it could result in a default judgement against the license. The Preliminary Notice Letter will offer an opportunity to attend a non-public, informal conference.

Prescriptions for schedule II controlled substances issued by prescribers from another state can be dispensed, but not after the end of the twenty-first day after the prescription issue date. The prescription must be within the scope of practice of the prescriber and must contain a valid DEA number.

When in an area where there an emergency order or state of emergency has been issued, the pharmacist can provide emergency dispensing of a refill on a medication of up to a 30 day supply, as long as it is not a schedule II controlled substance. The medication must be one essential to the maintenance of therapy for a chronic condition or life where the pharmacist feels interruption may cause health or mental consequences. The prescriber must be notified of the emergency dispensing within a reasonable amount of time after the dispensing.

Under the Texas Pharmacy Act, a prescription may be filled with a generically equivalent drug if the generic product costs less than the brand name product, the patient does not refuse brand/generic substitution, and the prescriber has not prohibited substitution with a dispensing directive. To prohibit substitution on a written prescription, the prescriber must write “brand necessary” or “brand medically necessary” in their own handwriting across the face of the prescription. Signing on a “no substitutions” line (or similar), check boxes, and other notations that indicate substitution instructions are not valid methods to prohibit substitution, and pharmacists may substitute generic medications in these cases.

Inventory records and others required to be kept must be kept for a period of at least 2 years from the date the record is received or made.

A sole pharmacist on duty may leave the pharmacy for a short period of time without closing the prescription department as long as they remain on the premises in case there is an immediate need for them, and as long as there is at least one pharmacy technician in the prescription department. However, if the pharmacist believes it should close during this period of time, then the pharmacist should remove all personnel from the pharmacy and post a notice.

The Texas State Board of Pharmacy identifies Corresponding Responsibility as the pharmacist’s role in ensuring proper therapeutic dispensing. This requires that pharmacists look for “red flags” that indicate a prescription is being written for a non-therapeutic reason. Red flags include one person picking up prescriptions for multiple people, multiple consumers having the same address or living far from the pharmacy and bringing in prescriptions from the same prescriber, consumers seeking early refills, prescriptions outside of practitioner’s scope of practice, requesting a specifically colored pill, using cash or credit cards to pay for prescriptions instead of using insurance, multiple prescriptions from a provider located far from the pharmacy, and others. A complete list can be found on the TSBP website.

Remote telepharmacy dispensing sites may not be established within 22 miles of a community pharmacy. However, if a community pharmacy is built within 22 miles of an already operating telepharmacy dispensing site, then the site may continue to operate.