This page answers the question, "What is a Prescription?"
A prescription (℞) is a written order by a physician or medical doctor to a pharmacist in the form of medication instructions for an individual patient.
It can also be defined as an order to take certain medications.
A prescription has legal implications; this means the prescriber must assume his responsibility for the clinical care of the patient.
Recently, the term “prescription” has known a wider usage being used for clinical assessments, laboratory tests or imaging studies.
What Are The Main Things On An Rx?
Name of medical practice or physician,
physical address of medical practice or physician (if multiple doctors are listed on a prescription, usually the doctor will circle his or her name for clarification),
phone number of the medical practice/physician,
name of the patient,
the date the prescription was written
All prescriptions, except for class II-V drugs, expire one year after they were written.
Class II-V drugs expire 6 months after they were written.
medication name,
medication strength,
sig (or directions to the patient, usually written in medical language or abbreviated medically),
number of refills, if any,
“PRN” refills means as many refills as that patient needs for 1 year
Class II medications never have refills-a new prescription must be brought to the pharmacy each time the patient needs that medication
Class III-V medications are only allowed 5 refills(the original fill plus 5 refills)
Patient is prescribed 10g of Glucose. The glucose is presented as a 5% solution in 500ml Saline. How much of the 5% dextrose saline solution do you need
This page, "What is a Prescription?" discusses what a prescription is, the main things on a prescription, prescriber's handwriting, suspected forgeries, and more.
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