KY MPJE cheat sheet

KRS Chapter 315 and Title 201 KAR Chapter 2 together govern Kentucky pharmacy practice; Board of Pharmacy regulations are enforceable with the force of law.

Each physical pharmacy location must hold its own Kentucky pharmacy license and must designate a pharmacist-in-charge who is accountable for compliance, recordkeeping, security, and staffing.

A licensed pharmacist must be on duty and supervising whenever the pharmacy is open; technicians cannot perform dispensing functions without pharmacist supervision.

Pharmacy technicians must be registered with the Board before performing technician duties, and the pharmacist-to-technician supervision ratio is fixed by Board regulation.

A pharmacy must maintain a documented continuous quality improvement (CQI) program that records dispensing errors and near misses, analyzes causes, and tracks corrective action.

Prescription, controlled substance, and purchasing records must be readily retrievable and produced on request during a Board inspection; DEA records must be retained at least two years.

Changes in ownership, location, pharmacist-in-charge, or operating hours must be reported to the Board and reflected on the pharmacy license.

Practicing on an expired or lapsed pharmacist or pharmacy license constitutes unlicensed practice and is grounds for Board discipline.

The Kentucky Board of Pharmacy is created by KRS 315.020, with members appointed by the Governor, and holds authority to license, inspect, investigate, and discipline.

Pharmacist licensure in Kentucky requires graduation from an ACPE-accredited program, documented internship hours, and passing scores on both the NAPLEX and the MPJE.

Kentucky participates in the Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination; a score transfer alone does not replace the jurisprudence requirement for licensure.

Pharmacy interns and externs must register with the Board before accrued hours count toward licensure, and all intern activity occurs under pharmacist supervision.

Pharmacy technicians must hold Board registration; national certification (for example PTCB or ExCPT) is a separate credential and does not substitute for state registration.

Pharmacist and pharmacy licenses renew on the cycle set by the Board, and renewal requires attestation that the required continuing education hours were completed during that cycle.

Licenses must be displayed or made available at the licensed location, and a licensee must notify the Board of address changes and criminal convictions.

A license that lapses for failure to renew or failure to complete continuing education cannot be practiced on until reinstated by the Board.

A prescription must identify the patient, drug, strength, dosage form, quantity, directions, date, refills authorized, and prescriber, and the pharmacist must confirm the prescriber's authority to prescribe.

Kentucky permits substitution of a federally rated therapeutically equivalent product unless the prescriber indicates dispense as written; the patient must be informed of the substitution.

A prospective drug utilization review is performed before dispensing to screen for allergies, interactions, therapeutic duplication, dosing errors, and contraindications, with problems resolved before the product leaves the pharmacy.

Required label elements include pharmacy name, address, and phone; prescription number; fill date; patient name; directions; prescriber; drug name and strength; quantity; refills; expiration or beyond-use date; and pharmacist identification.

Schedule II prescriptions may not be refilled; Schedule III through V prescriptions may be refilled up to five times or for six months from the date of issue, whichever comes first.

Transfers occur pharmacist-to-pharmacist between licensed pharmacies and must document both pharmacies, the transferring and receiving pharmacists, the date, and refills remaining.

A patient medication record containing allergies, chronic conditions, and prescription history must be maintained and reviewed at each dispensing encounter.

A nonresident pharmacy that ships prescriptions into Kentucky must be licensed by Kentucky and comply with Kentucky labeling, counseling, and recordkeeping rules.

KASPER is Kentucky's prescription monitoring program; dispensers must report controlled substance dispensing, and authorized prescribers and pharmacists may query patient histories.

Kentucky requires controlled substance prescriptions to be transmitted electronically, subject to statutory exceptions such as system failure, technical limitation, or an approved waiver.

Schedule II prescriptions cannot be refilled; an emergency oral Schedule II order is limited to a seven-day supply and must be followed by a written or electronic prescription within seven days.

A Schedule II prescription may be partially filled, but unless the patient is in a long-term care facility or terminally ill, the remainder must be dispensed within 72 hours or the prescription lapses.

Kentucky limits Schedule II prescriptions written for acute pain to a short supply unless a statutory exception (such as chronic pain, cancer, hospice, or palliative care) is documented.

Each registered location needs its own DEA registration, and a registrant must report theft or significant loss on DEA Form 106 within one business day of discovery.

Controlled substance records must be kept two years, including a biennial inventory, invoices and DEA Form 222 or CSOS orders, and dispensing records.

Pharmacists should verify prescription legitimacy by confirming the patient, the prescriber-patient relationship, and KASPER history when red flags such as early refills or multiple prescribers appear.

The pharmacist must offer counseling on each new prescription; the patient may decline, and both the offer and any refusal should be documented.

Counseling is a pharmacist function; technicians and clerks may deliver written materials but cannot satisfy the pharmacist's counseling obligation.

Required counseling content includes drug name and description, dose, route, frequency, duration, special directions, storage, refills, common side effects, interactions, precautions, and self-monitoring.

For controlled substances, counseling addresses dependence risk, avoiding alcohol and CNS depressants, secure storage, disposal, and access to naloxone.

Patient records and counseling content are confidential and protected under state law and HIPAA; disclosure requires patient authorization or a legal exception.

Counseling must be provided in a manner the patient can understand, using interpreter or translated materials when language barriers exist.

Device and administration technique demonstrations (inhalers, injectables, glucose meters) should be performed and the patient's technique observed at dispensing.

A beyond-use date is the last date a compounded or repackaged preparation may be used, calculated from the preparation date using USP limits that depend on water content, preservatives, and storage conditions.

High-alert medications require independent double checks, standardized concentrations, segregated storage, and tall-man lettering for look-alike sound-alike name pairs.

Medication errors and near misses are documented in the pharmacy's CQI record, analyzed for root cause, and used to change systems rather than to assign individual blame.

Serious adverse events, product quality defects, and errors may be reported to FDA MedWatch and to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices; these reports are generally voluntary.

Recall notices require identification and quarantine of affected stock, documentation of the action taken, patient contact when directed, and return of product per the notice instructions.

Refrigerators and freezers storing drugs require continuous or logged temperature monitoring with documented response to excursions.

Sterile compounding follows USP General Chapter 797 requirements for facilities, environmental monitoring, personnel qualification, and assigned beyond-use dates.

DEA registrations are location-specific and renew every three years; a separate registration is needed for each principal place of business.

Schedule II substances are ordered on DEA Form 222 or through CSOS, and a power of attorney on file authorizes named employees to sign orders.

Controlled substance invoices and dispensing records must be maintained in a readily retrievable form for two years and kept separate from other records.

A biennial inventory of all controlled substances on hand is required, dated and signed, with the record retained at least two years.

On-site destruction of controlled substances requires DEA Form 41 or transfer to a DEA-registered reverse distributor with documentation of the transfer.

Board inspectors may enter and inspect a licensed pharmacy during business hours and examine records, stock, and security; refusal is grounds for discipline.

Board discipline follows notice and an opportunity for an administrative hearing, and sanctions may include reprimand, fine, probation, suspension, or revocation.

Prescription monitoring data may be queried only for authorized purposes such as patient treatment; unauthorized access is a statutory violation.

Kentucky pharmacists administer vaccines under a protocol with a prescribing physician and must hold current CPR certification and completed ACPE-accredited immunization training.

A current vaccine information statement (VIS) must be provided to the patient or guardian before each dose of a covered vaccine, and the VIS edition date is documented.

Vaccine administration records must include vaccine name, manufacturer, lot, expiration date, dose, site, route, date, administering pharmacist, and VIS edition date.

Immunization data must be reported to the Kentucky Immunization Registry as required by state regulation, in addition to documentation in the pharmacy record.

Kentucky pharmacists may dispense naloxone without a patient-specific prescription under a physician-approved protocol and must counsel on overdose recognition and administration.

Anaphylaxis preparedness requires epinephrine, a written emergency protocol, and staff trained to recognize and respond to adverse reactions after vaccination.

Vaccines must be stored within the labeled cold chain with logged temperatures, and expired or temperature-damaged product must be removed from usable stock.