Centralized prescription processing—also known as central fill—is a service one pharmacy provides to another to support the preparation and packaging of a prescription drug. Pharmacy Connection shares five things pharmacy professionals should know about this service.
1. A central fill pharmacy is an accredited community pharmacy
2. Patient consent must be obtained and documented
3. Only patient-specific prescriptions can be processed by a central fill pharmacy
4. The College must be notified about each central fill agreement between two pharmacies
5. Pharmacies using central fill must assess their risk and accept their shared accountability
REMINDER: Prescriptions for controlled substances (narcotics, controlled drugs, benzodiazepines and other targeted substances) cannot be processed by central fill. Federal regulations only permit the sale/provision of controlled substances from one pharmacy to another in specific situations (e.g., an emergency). Issuance of a dealer’s license issued by the Federal Minister of Health would be required to sell/provide/send a controlled substance in a central fill arrangement.