Know the Rules about Prescribing To Yourself and Your Family
One of the most common questions you may ask as a physician is whether you can prescribe medicine for yourself and your family members. While many of you may prescribe medication for fever or cough to your family members or yourself, it is not what medical ethics allow.
Why Should You Not Treat Yourself And Your Kids?
As per the American Medical Association or AMA, you, as a physician, should not treat your immediate family members or yourself. Even though a physician dispensing program may allow you to dispense medications from your dispensary, there are some valid reasons you should consider for not treating yourself and your family.
Since you are emotionally attached to your family, treating them with the sole professional objective can be difficult.
If you need to conduct a physical examination on your patient, it can be uncomfortable for you and your family member. Moreover, it is practically impossible to examine yourself physically.
Believe it or not, your family may expect you to treat them beyond your expertise. You would want to avoid making mistakes by giving in to their expectations.
Possible Situations for Self-Prescribing and Treating Relatives through a Physician Dispensing Program:
You may think it is hard to do nothing while your loved ones may need medical attention. While you should refrain from providing them with medicine from your physician dispensing program, you can treat them in an emergency.
You may prescribe physician drug dispensing by the state just in case of emergency or in an isolated situation where immediate medical attention is unavailable. Also, you can treat minor health issues for yourself and your family members. Otherwise, AMA does not allow you to monitor any controlled substance to yourself through a physician dispensing program.
State Laws That May Forbid You To Use Physician Dispensing Program For Self-Medication:
The American Medical Association has clear guidelines about when you can ethically prescribe medication to yourself and your family members. However, above the guidelines of the AMA, you are bound to follow the states' laws. Each state of the USA has laws for physicians that you must abide by.
As per the laws of some states, you cannot prescribe your course, whether for yourself or a physician dispensing medications. In some states, your prescription may not be valid if you have not treated the person as your patient and written the prescription under the physician dispensing program. Hence, prescribing for yourself or your loved ones may be illegal in these states.
What Should You Do?
We recommend you get legal advice to know what you can do in your state. For high-grade medicines that you can prescribe under the physician dispensing program, you can get in touch with PD-RX Pharmaceuticals. We are the leading supplier of affordable medications.
**Disclaimer: The information on this page is not intended to be a doctor's advice, nor does it create any form of the patient-doctor relationship.