Measures for the Administration of Prescriptions(from government website)
Measures for the Administration of Prescriptions(from government website)
Measures for the Administration of Prescriptions
Order of the Ministry of Health No.53
February 14, 2007
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 This Measures is enacted, based on Law on Licensed Doctors, Drug Control Law, Regulations on Medical Institutions and Regulations on Narcotics and Psychotropic Drugs and other related regulations, for the purpose of regulating the administration of prescriptions, improving its quality, facilitating rational administration of drugs and guaranteeing the safety of medical treatment.
Article 2 The prescriptions in this Measures refer to are those prescribed by the registered doctors or assistant doctors (hereinafter referred to as doctors) during the consultation with patients and meanwhile examined, prepared and verified by pharmacologist who acquired pharmacological technical title (hereinafter referred to as pharmacologist), and also used as instruction on how to take the medicine. The prescriptions also include medical orders from the ward. The Measures can be applied to medical institutions and staff who are engaged in prescribing, preparing and storing the medicines.
Article 3 The Ministry of Heath is in charge of supervision and administration of prescription, preparation and storage of the medicinal nationwide. The health departments at the country level are responsible for supervision and administration of prescription, preparation and storage of the medicines in its own administrative areas.
Article 4 Doctors shall prescribe and pharmacologists shall prepare medicines with the principle of safety, efficiency and economics. Prescription medicine shall be sold, prepared and used based on doctor's prescription.
Chapter II General Regulations on Prescriptions
Article 5 The standards for prescriptions (appendix 1) are formulated exclusively by the Ministry of Health; the format for prescriptions is formulated by administrative department for public health in each province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government (hereinafter referred to as provincial administrative department of health); the prescription sheet are printed by medical institutions based on these standards and format.
Article 6 Prescription writing shall abide by the following principles:
1. The record of Patients' general conditions and clinical diagnosis shall be clear, complete and the same with the clinical history;
2. One prescription shall be only prescribed to one patient;
3. All the characters shall be neat and clear, and none of them shall be altered; where it is altered, the signature shall be signed together with the date;
4. The name of the medicines shall be written in Chinese; with regard to those without Chinese names, formal English name shall be used. Neither medical institutions nor doctors or pharmacologist shall abbreviate or code the name of medicines. The name, dosage, specifications, usage of the medicines shall be accurate. The usage can be written in Chinese, English, Latin or abbreviation; however, the equivocal expression such as "follow the medical order" or "help yourself" are not allowed to use for prescription;
5. The accurate age of the patients shall be recorded. With regard to newly-born baby or the infants, the month and date of birth shall be recorded accurately, and the weight is added when necessary;
6. Western medicine and patent Chinese medicine can be prescribed either in same prescription sheet or separately. The herbal pieces should be prescribed on a separate sheet;
7. With regard to the prescription of western medicine and patent Chinese medicine, no more than 5 kinds shall be written on one prescription sheet with each kind taking one line of the sheet;
8. Prescriptions shall be written in the order of principal medicines, assistant medicines, adjuvant and balancing medicines successively, called the order of "sovereign, minister, assistant and guide"; the special requirement for dispensation or decoction shall be noted in brackets on upper right corner of the corresponding herb, such as "to be decocted first", "to be decocted later", "wrap-boiling", etc. The special requirements for production place or processing shall be written before the name of the medicines;
9. The usage and dosage of the medicines shall be written in accordance with regular usage and dosage on the instructions; where over-dosage is required, the reason shall be noted with doctor's signature as the confirmation;
10. The clinical diagnosis shall be noted in the prescription sheet, except in special circumstances;
11. After a prescription is finished, a diagonal mark should be done in the blank part of the form to indicate the end of the prescription; and
12. The signature and personal seal of the doctors should be the same as those kept by pharmacological department in the hospital; if the modification has been done, the pharmacological department should keep a new record for it.
Article 7 The dosage and number of the medicines shall be recorded in Arabic numerals. The dosage shall be accompanied with unit: for example, gram(g), milligram(mg), microgram(μg) and nanogram(ng) for weight; liter(L) and milliliter(ml) for capacity; international unit(IU), unite(U); gram(g) for herbal pieces.
For tablets, pills, capsules and granules, the unit shall be tablet, pill, particle and bag respectively; for liquid medicine, the unit shall be a single unit or bottle; for paste such as ointment, the unit shall be a single unit or box; for injection, the unit shall be a single unit or bottle with contents indicated; for herbal pieces, the unit shall be decoction
Chapter III How to Acquire Prescription Rights
Article 8 The registered doctor acquired the prescription rights in the medical institution where he is registered.
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