WHEELING - West Virginia's 10 free clinics are no longer in danger of losing their ability to provide medication.
The West Virginia Board of Pharmacy has eased its proposed rules regulating who can dispense medication in the clinics and under what conditions.
"They've relaxed quite a bit," said Kathie Brown, executive director of Wheeling Health Right.
West Virginia Senate Bill 722, passed last spring, gave the Board of Pharmacy the power to oversee the state's free clinics. The rules the board initially proposed would require clinics have a pharmacist or pharmacy technician present whenever a prescription is filled. The new rules state that state-licensed health practitioners will be able to dispense prescriptions without a pharmacist or pharmacy technician available.
The board is also relaxing its requirements that would require pharmacies to have security systems, weights and scales. Brown said the Wheeling Clinic already has a security system in place, and its existing pharmacy has never needed weights or scales.
The free clinics are in the process of arranging a meeting with the Board of Pharmacy and the Office of the Governor.
Brown said she hopes the groups will meet several times before the Senate Rules Committee has the chance to review the new rules. The rules ought to reach the state Legislature in February, and if approved, they will go into effect in March or April.
"It looks as if free clinics are going to keep their pharmacies," Brown said. "We're heading toward a good place."
Brown said there are still some issues she would like to see resolved with the Board of Pharmacy's rules. A pharmacist-in-charge will only have to serve at each clinic eight hours a month for any clinic with a 40-hour week, probably on a volunteer basis, but the pharmacist will be responsible for all prescriptions filled at the clinic, regardless of who filled them.
"It's a big liability," Brown said. "They're putting their licenses on the line even when they're not at the pharmacy."
Another point of contention is what should be done about prescriptions written in the emergency room.
The proposed rules would require the pharmacist be present to fill the order.
But if the pharmacist is not available when a patient comes in, the hospitals may have to cope with the burden of patients coming back until medication can be provided.
With the immediate threat to free clinics over, Brown said she is prepared to make some sacrifices to reach a compromise with the Board of Pharmacy and the Office of the Governor.
"In the long run, I think we'll all come out somewhat happy," she said.