The Pharmaceutical Agent Order

Prescription

• An oral or written record of a physician’s order to pharmacist to dispense medication to patient.

Components of a Prescription – Written Form• prescriber’s name and title (MD, DDS, DMD, DO,

etc.)• prescriber’s office address• prescriber’s phone number• patient’s name and address• patient’s age • date on which prescription was written• Superscription, or the letters Rx – Latin for recipe

or “take thou”• Inscription, the actual body of the prescription

indicating the drug name, strength and dosage form

Components of a Prescription – Written Form• Signature, not to be confused with the

prescriber’s signed name; clearly written and understandable instructions

• Subscription, the quantity of the drug to be dispensed to the patient

• refill instructions

• prescriber’s signature

• prescriber’s DEA number

Physician’s Order

• Form to order medication for the hospitalized patient

Components of a Physician’s Order• Patient’s Name and hospital number

• patient’s room or ward location

• attending physician

• patient’s date of birth

• allergies or sensitivities to drugs, foods, and other substances

• Diagnosis

• date of admission

• patient’s condition

Components of a Physician’s Order• Services to be performed(i.e. tests, activities, diet, etc.)• medications ordered• strength of each medication ordered• dosage form specified to avoid any questions regarding

the form to be administered – most drugs come prepared in more than one dosage form; patient’s condition often determines route of administration

• directions for use or frequency of administration for each drug nurse’s or physician’s signature with date and time of entry on the physician’s order.

Oral Prescriptions

• Phoned in – usually done by a prescriber known to pharmacists. Not applicable to schedule II drugs.

Components of an Oral Prescription

• Doctor’s name

• Doctor’s phone number

• Patient’s name

• Patient’s address

• Patient’s phone number

Components of an Oral Prescription

• DEA number

• Name of drug

• Quantity of drug

• Directions

• Refill instructions

Prescription Label

• An identification label placed on the outside of the bottle.

Components of a Prescription Label

• a prescription serial number (referred to as the RX number) and the date the prescription was filled

• the patient’s full name

• clearly typed (or printed) instructions for taking the medication

• the first word of he directions should infer the route of administration

Components of a Prescription Label

• name of the drug (labeling), unless specifically requested by prescriber not to label

• pharmacist’s initials and initials of the tech preparing the drug for dispensing

• prescriber’s name• drug’s expiration date (usually can be obtained from

stock bottle, except in case of freshly reconstituted medication according to manufacturer’s recommendation

Components of a Prescription Label• number of refills left available, if any, or no

refills, if none

• additional labels, “strip labels”, accessory labels, informing patient of particular way to take medication assuring optimal effect