(a) Any handwritten prescription order for a drug prepared by a physician or surgeon who is authorized by law to prescribe a drug must be legible so that it is comprehensible by the pharmacist who fills the prescription. The handwritten prescription order must contain the name of the prescribing physician or surgeon, the name and strength of the drug prescribed, the quantity of the drug prescribed, handwritten in letters or in numerals, instructions for the proper use of the drug and the month and day that the prescription order was issued, recorded in letters or in numerals or a combination thereof. The prescribing physician or surgeon must sign the handwritten prescription order on the day it is issued, unless the prescription order is:

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 63-6-236

  • Month: means a calendar month. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) Issued as a standing order in a hospital, a nursing home or an assisted care living facility as defined in § 68-11-201; or
(2) Prescribed by a physician or surgeon in the department of health or local health departments or dispensed by the department of health or a local health department as stipulated in § 63-10-205.
(b) Any typed or computer-generated prescription order for a drug issued by a physician or surgeon who is authorized by law to prescribe a drug must be legible so that it is comprehensible by the pharmacist who fills the typed or computer-generated prescription order. The prescription order must contain the name of the prescribing physician or surgeon, the name and strength of the drug prescribed, the quantity of the drug prescribed, recorded in letters or in numerals, instructions for the proper use of the drug and the month and day that the typed or computer-generated prescription order was issued, recorded in letters or in numerals or a combination thereof. The prescribing physician or surgeon must sign the typed or computer-generated prescription order on the day it is issued, unless the prescription order is:

(1) Issued as a standing order in a hospital, nursing home or an assisted care living facility as defined in § 68-11-201; or
(2) Prescribed by a physician or surgeon in the department of health or local health departments or dispensed by the department of health or a local health department as stipulated in § 63-10-205.
(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent a physician or surgeon from issuing a verbal prescription order.
(d)

(1) All handwritten, typed or computer-generated prescription orders must be issued on either tamper-resistant prescription paper or printed utilizing a technology that results in a tamper-resistant prescription that meets the current centers for medicare and medicaid service guidance to state medicaid directors regarding § 7002(b) of the United States Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act of 2007, P.L. 110-28, and meets or exceeds specific TennCare requirements for tamper-resistant prescriptions.
(2) Subdivision (d)(1) shall not apply to prescriptions written for inpatients of a hospital, outpatients of a hospital where the doctor or other person authorized to write prescriptions, writes the order into the hospital medical record and then the order is given directly to the hospital pharmacy and the patient never has the opportunity to handle the written order, a nursing home or an assisted care living facility as defined in § 68-11-201 or inpatients or residents of a mental health hospital or residential facility licensed under title 33 or individuals incarcerated in a local, state or federal correctional facility.
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