Print This Article
Board of Pharmacy Update
Highlights of the November Meeting
by Scott A. Meyers, Executive Vice President
The November 14th Board of Pharmacy Meeting was held at the James R. Thompson Center at Randolph Street and LaSalle Street in downtown Chicago. These are the highlights of that meeting.
Department Update – Katy Straub, the Board of Pharmacy’s general counsel, provided news from the Department of Financial and Professional Affairs. Nancy Hall, one of the Departments Drug Compliance Investigators, has moved to another state to take a new job. Her replacement is expected to start after the first of the new year. Nancy has served the central part of the State for approximately nine years. The Board thanked Nancy for her service and wished her well.
The draft compounding rules are expected to be published shortly in the Illinois Register, which will begin the 45-day public comment period. These rules will include compliance with the USP compounding compendia, but will not include USP Chapter 800 as a result of its delayed release pushed back to December of 2019. Once the comment period is closed, the Department will make revisions as determined necessary and then the final draft will be presented to the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules.
A draft change to the Automated Dispensing and Storage System (ADDS) section of the Practice Act Rules is also going to be released, which will allow nurses or physicians to place medications sent by the pharmacy into ADDS of nursing homes. Currently, only registrants under the Act may do this. The Pharmacist-in-charge (PIC) will have full authority in identifying which nurse or physician may have this responsibility and the PIC will retain responsibility for the inventory within the ADDS systems at each facility. Public comment will be allowed on this change also.
NABP/AACP District IV Meeting – The 2017 District IV meeting was held in Toledo and co-hosted by the Ohio Board of Pharmacy and the University of Toledo College of Pharmacy in early November. The focus of the meeting was fighting the opioid epidemic, with a partial day also discussing the regulation of medical marijuana. The District did craft a resolution to be considered at the NABP Annual Meeting next May regarding the creation of a task force to study the soon-to-be drafted revised standards for accredited technician training programs by the Pharmacy Technician Accreditation Council (PTAC). If accepted, the standards could be added to the NABP Model Practice Act as early as 2019. In addition, there was also discussion related to mandated e-prescribing of all new prescriptions. New York State is the first State to adopt this requirement and it has experienced a substantial decrease in stolen prescription pads and fraudulent prescriptions. The 2018 District IV meeting will be held in Grand Rapids, Michigan on November 7-9.
Board Elections – The Board elected officers for the 2018 calendar year. Yash Patel will serve as Chair for a fourth year in a row and Ned Milenkovich will serve his fourth term as Vice Chair. Congratulations gentlemen!
Legislative Update – The Board was presented with one highlight from the veto session regarding a change to the Controlled Substance Act. That change is described in the Government Affairs Report in this issue of KeePosted. The Board also briefly discussed the proposed Chicago City ordinance related to work load issues. The draft ordinance was passed by the City Finance Committee without a roll call vote, but has been held due to a lack of overall support within the whole City Council.
The Board also asked about the progress of the Collaborative Pharmaceutical Task Force set to work on revising the Pharmacy Practice Act. Unfortunately, the Task Force has not been fully appointed yet. The first meeting is expected to occur after the first of the year and will be subject to the open meetings act which means the meetings will be open to the public and the agendas will be posted on the Pharmacy site within the IDFPR website. ICHP’s representative will be Executive Vice President Scott Meyers.
Audience Comments – The Department staff was questioned on the current compliance level of pharmacies with the new mandatory counseling rules. Compliance seems to be very good. The Department investigators are doing some education to help those who need some guidance.
Next Meeting – The next meeting of the Board is set for January 9th, 2018 at 10:30 am in the James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago. These meetings are open to the public and pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy students are encouraged to attend.
