Florida Senate - 2021                                     SB 262
       
       
        
       By Senator Harrell
       
       
       
       
       
       25-00486-21                                            2021262__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to dispensing medicinal drugs;
    3         amending s. 465.019, F.S.; authorizing certain
    4         hospitals to dispense supplies of prescribed medicinal
    5         drugs in a specified amount to emergency department
    6         patients or inpatients upon discharge under certain
    7         circumstances; authorizing a greater specified supply
    8         of medicinal drugs to be prescribed and dispensed in
    9         areas in which a state of emergency has been declared
   10         and is in effect; authorizing a prescriber to provide
   11         a patient with a prescription for medicinal drugs
   12         beyond the initial prescription period under certain
   13         circumstances; providing an effective date.
   14          
   15  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   16  
   17         Section 1. Subsection (4) of section 465.019, Florida
   18  Statutes, is amended to read:
   19         465.019 Institutional pharmacies; permits.—
   20         (4)(a) Medicinal drugs shall be dispensed in an
   21  institutional pharmacy to outpatients only when that institution
   22  has secured a community pharmacy permit from the department.
   23  However, an individual licensed to prescribe medicinal drugs in
   24  this state may be dispensed by dispense up to a 24-hour supply
   25  of a medicinal drug to any patient of an emergency department of
   26  a hospital that operates a Class II or Class III institutional
   27  pharmacy to a patient of the hospital′s emergency department or
   28  a hospital inpatient upon discharge if a prescriber, as defined
   29  in s. 465.025(1), provided that the physician treating the
   30  patient in such hospital hospital’s emergency department
   31  determines that the medicinal drug is warranted and that
   32  community pharmacy services are not readily accessible,
   33  geographically or otherwise, to the patient. Such prescribing
   34  and dispensing from the emergency department must be in
   35  accordance with the procedures of the hospital must be for a
   36  supply of the drug that will last for the greater of the
   37  following:
   38         1. Up to 48 hours; or
   39         2. Through the end of the next business day.
   40         (b) Notwithstanding subparagraph (a)1., if a state of
   41  emergency has been declared and is in effect for an area of this
   42  state pursuant to s. 252.36, a supply of a medicinal drug which
   43  will last up to 72 hours may be prescribed and dispensed under
   44  paragraph (a) in that area For any such patient for whom a
   45  medicinal drug is warranted for a period to exceed 24 hours, an
   46  individual licensed to prescribe such drug must dispense a 24
   47  hour supply of such drug to the patient and must provide the
   48  patient with a prescription for such drug for use after the
   49  initial 24-hour period.
   50         (c) A prescriber as defined in s. 465.025(1) who prescribes
   51  medicinal drugs under this subsection may provide the patient
   52  with a prescription for such drug for use beyond the initial
   53  prescription period if the prescriber determines that such use
   54  is warranted.
   55         (d) The board may adopt rules necessary to implement carry
   56  out the provisions of this subsection.
   57         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2021.