AB 120

Under current law, a licensed pharmacist may make therapeutic alternate drug

selections, if made in accordance with written guidelines or procedures (a formulary)

previously established by: 1) a pharmacy and therapeutics committee of a hospital

and approved by the hospital's medical staff, for patients in a hospital; or 2) a quality

assessment and assurance committee of a nursing home, for patients in a nursing

home. The use of the therapeutic alternate drug selection must have been approved

for a patient during the period of the patient's stay within the hospital or nursing

home by the patient's attending physician, physician assistant, or, in the case of a

hospital, the patient's advanced practice nurse prescriber.

This bill creates a Corrections System Formulary Board (board) in the

Department of Corrections (DOC), to consist of two physicians, one of whom is a

psychiatrist, a pharmacist, and, at the discretion of the secretary of corrections

(secretary), other members, all appointed by the secretary. The bill requires the

board to promulgate rules to establish a formulary for prisoners confined in state

correctional institutions and allows a pharmacist to make therapeutic alternate

drug selections in accordance with that formulary, if approved for a prisoner during

his or her period of confinement in a state correctional institution by a physician, an

advanced practice nursing prescriber, or a physician assistant. The bill requires that

the formulary established by the board apply uniformly within all state correctional

institutions.