3.17 Prescription Discontinuations

General Policy Description

A prescription should be discontinued if a patient has stopped using a medication previously dispensed.

Discontinuing a prescription changes the status in PharmaNet to “discontinued” and changes the expiry date of the prescription so that the prescription will not be included in drug use evaluation (DUE) checks.

A discontinuation does not trigger a billing correction, and the medication remains in the patient medication history in PharmaNet.

As per the College of Pharmacists of BC, a prescription may be discontinued only:

• By the pharmacy that originally dispensed it, and
• If the original prescription is recorded in PharmaNet