Pharmacy.

Existing law, the Pharmacy Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of pharmacies, including hospital pharmacies, by the California State Board of Pharmacy, and makes a knowing violation of that law a crime. Existing law prohibits the operation of a pharmacy without a license and a separate license is required for each pharmacy location. Under existing law, a hospital pharmacy, as defined, includes a pharmacy located outside of the hospital in another physical plant. However, as a condition of licensure by the board for these pharmacies, pharmaceutical services may only be provided to registered hospital patients who are on the premises of the same physical plant in which the pharmacy is located and those services must be directly related to the services or treatment plan administered in the physical plant. This bill would authorize a centralized hospital packaging pharmacy to prepare medications, by performing specified functions, for administration only to inpatients within its own general acute care hospital and one or more general acute care hospitals if the hospitals are under common ownership, as defined, and within a 75-mile radius of each other. The bill would require a centralized hospital packaging pharmacy to obtain a specialty license from the board, and the bill would make these licenses subject to annual renewal. The bill would condition both the issuance and renewal of a specialty license on a board inspection of the centralized hospital packaging pharmacy to ensure that the pharmacy is in compliance with the bill's provisions and regulations established by the board. The bill would impose specified issuance and annual renewal fees for a specialty license, and because these fees would be deposited into the Pharmacy Board Contingent Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill would authorize a centralized hospital packaging pharmacy to prepare and store a limited quantity of specified unit dose drugs in advance of receipt of a patient-specific prescription in a specified quantity. The bill would impose various requirements on centralized hospital packaging pharmacies, including, but not limited to, that medications be barcoded to be readable at the inpatient's bedside and that medication labels contain specified information. The bill would make these pharmacies and pharmacists responsible for the integrity, potency, quality, and labeled strength of any unit dose drug product prepared by the packaging pharmacy. Because a knowing violation of these provisions would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.