Published: August 19, 2008 08:28 pm      

Proposed state regulations won’t impact patient access to medicine

CHARLESTON — Rules being considered for the pharmacies of free clinics will not keep free medications from people who need them, a representative of the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy said Tuesday.

Dave Potters, executive director and general counsel for the board of pharmacy, spoke with the Bluefield Daily Telegraph about proposed rules being considered under Senate Bill 722 in the Legislature. The rules would cover the dispensing of medications in West Virginia’s free clinics.

Operators of free clinics such as Mercer Health Right in Green Valley have been concerned that the S.B. 722’s rules will require them to hire pharmacists. Debbie Enigk of Mercer Health Right said that this would cost the clinic $100,000 annually, and the getting a volunteer pharmacist would be difficult because they have little free time and have concerns about facing reprimands if mistakes are made, she said.

Potters said Tuesday that many free clinic pharmacies have been operating without pharmacists or with technicians or volunteers dispensing medications.

“What the bill does is requires that if they’re going to have a pharmacy just to make sure the patients’ safety is protected,” Potters said. “It requires that the prescriptions be checked by a pharmacist or a doctor before they are dispensed. The patients will still be able to receive their free samples, will still be able to receive prescriptions from a free clinic pharmacy and other such things. They could allow doctors to dispense or try to get volunteer pharmacists if they are unable to afford to pay a pharmacist.”

When asked how free clinics could find volunteer pharmacists, Potters said the first step is to get the free clinic pharmacies licensed so pharmacists will have more assurance that they would be volunteering in a proper pharmacy environment. An additional incentive is being considered.

“We’ve also put in the regs (regulations) an incentive to allow pharmacists to earn some of their required continuing education credit for hours they volunteer in a free clinic,” he said. “They get on the job experience working in a different environment they might not otherwise encounter.”

A survey in a West Virginia Pharmacist Association newsletter going out in September and to the state’s two pharmacy schools will help determine the willingness of pharmacists to volunteer in exchange for education credits, Potters said. The schools’ “experiential directors” who help students get internships and practical experience have expressed interest in the volunteer concept.

“We’re looking at multiple routes to try and get the volunteer pharmacists for the free clinics,” he said.

The rules should not interfere with qualified patients getting medicine at free clinics, Potters said.

“As long as it’s a valid prescription and as so long as they qualify for the clinic’s services, then it would be like taking it to any other pharmacy,” he said. “We just want the patients to have the same protections at this clinic pharmacy as if they had it filled at the hospital pharmacy or a retail pharmacy.”

“In any other regular pharmacy, hospital or retail, non-pharmacy personnel are generally not permitted in the pharmacy,” he said. “Physicians in pharmacies act as dispensing physicians under their board of medicine or board of osteopathy.”

Whether other personnel who volunteer in free clinics, physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners, can dispense medicine depends “on their particular board licenser,” Potters said. “It’s not up to the board of pharmacy. It’s up to their particular licensing board. This bill in no way affects their abilities to prescribe as is regulated by their own licensing boards.”

Rules under S.B. 722 now in the public comment period.

“Right now they’re in the public comment period until Aug. 29, then we will continue to work with the free clinics to make modifications before they are submitted to the Legislature Rule Making and Review Committee in January,” Potters said.