1. (1) Licensed pharmacist means a person licensed to practice pharmacy pursuant to article 137 of title VIII of the Education Law.
2. (2) Pharmacy intern means a person practicing under a limited permit pursuant to section 6806 of title VIII of the Education Law.

3. (3) Professional judgment means professional decision-making by a licensed pharmacist, including, but not limited to, such activities as:

   1. (i) interpreting a prescription or medication order for therapeutic acceptability and appropriateness or engaging in the calculations behind any such formulations;
   2. (ii) interpreting and evaluating a prescription or medication order for conformance with legal requirements, authenticity, accuracy and interaction of the prescribed drug with other known prescribed and over-the-counter drugs;
   3. (iii) receiving oral prescriptions from prescribers; or
   4. (iv) counseling patients.
4. (4) Compounding means the combining, admixing, mixing, diluting, pooling, reconstituting, or otherwise altering of a drug or bulk drug substance to create a drug.
5. (5) Drugs, pharmacopeia, labeling and sterile drug shall have the same definitions as set forth in section 6802 of title VIII of the Education Law.

6. (b) Definition of the practice of registered pharmacy technician and use of the title:

   1. (1) Only a person licensed to practice as a registered pharmacy technician under article 137-A of the Education Law or otherwise authorized to practice shall practice as a registered pharmacy technician or use the title “registered pharmacy technician”.
   2. (2) A registered pharmacy technician may, under the direct personal supervision of a licensed pharmacist, assist such licensed pharmacist, as directed, in compounding, preparing, labeling, or dispensing of drugs used to fill valid prescriptions or medication orders or in compounding, preparing, and labeling in anticipation of a valid prescription or medication order for a patient to be served by the facility, in accordance with article 137 of the Education Law where such tasks require no professional judgment. Such professional judgment shall only be exercised by a licensed pharmacist. A registered pharmacy technician may only practice in a facility licensed in accordance with article 28 of the Public Health Law, or a pharmacy owned and operated by such a facility, under the direct personal supervision of a licensed pharmacist employed in such a facility or pharmacy. Such facility shall be responsible for ensuring that the registered pharmacy technician has received appropriate training to ensure competence before he or she begins assisting a licensed pharmacist in compounding, preparing, labeling, or dispensing of drugs, in accordance with articles 137-A and 137 of the Education Law. For the purposes of this section, direct personal supervision means supervision of procedures based on instructions given directly by a supervising licensed pharmacist who remains in the immediate area where the procedures are being performed, authorizes the procedures and evaluates the procedures performed by the registered pharmacy technicians and a supervising licensed pharmacist shall approve all work performed by the registered pharmacy technician prior to the actual dispensing of any drug.

   3. (3) In addition to the registered pharmacy technician services included in subdivision (a) of this section, registered pharmacy technicians may also assist a licensed pharmacist in the dispensing of drugs by performing the following functions that do not require a license under article 137-A of the Education Law:

      1. (i) receiving written or electronically transmitted prescriptions, except that in the case of electronically transmitted prescriptions the licensed pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall review the prescription to determine whether in his or her professional judgment it shall be accepted by the pharmacy, and if accepted, the licensed pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall enter his or her initials into the records of the pharmacy;
      2. (ii) typing prescription labels;
      3. (iii) keying prescription data for entry into a computer-generated file or retrieving prescription data from the file, provided that such computer-generated file shall provide for verification of all information needed to fill the prescription by a licensed pharmacist prior to the dispensing of the prescription, meaning that the licensed pharmacist shall review and approve such information and enter his or her initials or other personal identifier into the recordkeeping system prior to the dispensing of the prescription or of the prescription refill;
      4. (iv) getting drugs from stock and returning them to stock;
      5. (v) getting prescription files and other manual records from storage and locating prescriptions;
      6. (vi) counting dosage units of drugs;
      7. (vii) placing dosage units of drugs in appropriate containers;
      8. (viii) affixing the prescription label to the containers;
      9. (ix) preparing manual records of dispensing for the signature or initials of the licensed pharmacist; or
      10. (x) handing or delivering completed prescriptions to the patient or the person authorized to act on behalf of the patient and, in accordance with the relevant commissioner’s regulations, advising the patient or person authorized to act on behalf of the patient of the availability of counseling to be conducted by the licensed pharmacist or pharmacy intern.

(a) Definitions.

As used in this section: