Sign prescription for MD?

[TXERRN84]

At my new position in an ER it is apparently common practice for one particular MD to not sign his own prescriptions. He leaves it blank and expects the RN to sign it. Is this legal in TX? I’ve never seen this done at any other ER.

[caliotter3]

How can it be legal for anyone but the doctor to sign his own prescriptions? I would not do it.

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

I suspect it would be federal law that controls this, not TX state law.

And I doubt it's legal.

[TXERRN84]

2 hours ago, Jedrnurse said:

I suspect it would be federal law that controls this, not TX state law.

And I doubt it's legal.

Do you know where I can find this info? I'm assuming it's illegal too but I would like to see it somewhere to confirm

2 hours ago, caliotter3 said:

How can it be legal for anyone but the doctor to sign his own prescriptions? I would not do it.

Where can I find something that states that? I want to let my boss know that I'm not doing it but I want to be sure that it is illegal. Because if he decides the RX, amount, route etc, can he delegate the signature?

[brownbook]

Is the physician standing right there, writes out a prescription, then won't sign it?

I don't understand. It makes no sense. What am I missing?

[TXERRN84]

1 minute ago, brownbook said:

Is the physician standing right there, writes out a prescription, then won't sign it?

I don't understand. It makes no sense. What am I missing?

Yes, he does it on the computer, it prints out. Then I need to bring the patient their prescription and discharge paperwork. He pretty much disappears by the time it has printed to go watch tv or sleep. Instead of "bothering" him, the ER nurses just sign it for him and he expects it. He is just being lazy.

[brownbook]

Perhaps you could stop by the hospital pharmacy and ask to speak to the pharmacist? Ask him/her if they can give you some protocol or documents to back up whatever their answer is.

[TXERRN84]

On 2/3/2020 at 10:03 AM, brownbook said:

Perhaps you could stop by the hospital pharmacy and ask to speak to the pharmacist? Ask him/her if they can give you some protocol or documents to back up whatever their answer is.

That's a good idea thank you. I'm just thinking I don't want to raise hell if it is legal for an MD to delegate that

[LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM]

On 2/3/2020 at 10:04 AM, TXERRN84 said:

That's a good idea thank you. I'm just thinking I don't want to raise hell if it is legal for an MD to delegate that

I don't know where on earth it would be legal to forge a doctor's signature on a prescription, be it for Colace or Oxycontin. That is absolutely crazy and I wouldn't do it. If the MD gave me crap about it I'd just continue to assert my (logical) argument that what they're asking me to do is insane.

[kp2016]

I have never been licensed in nor worked in Texas but i'm fairly confident the answer is NO that is not legal. Nurses cannot write prescriptions so it's highly unlikely we can sign a prescription. Out of interest are the nurses that do this signing their name or the Doctor's name?

I would start paging the Nursing Supervisor (and I do mean an actual manger not a team leader) everytime this happens and let them know you can't discharge the patient as the discharge meds aren't signed. Put this back where it belongs by making management deal with this.

[TXERRN84]

1 minute ago, kp2016 said:

I have never been licensed in nor worked in Texas but i'm fairly confident the answer is NO that is not legal. Nurses cannot write prescriptions so it's highly unlikely we can sign a prescription. Out of interest are the nurses that do this signing their name or the Doctor's name?

I would start paging the Nursing Supervisor (and I do mean an actual manger not a team leader) everytime this happens and let them know you can't discharge the patient as the discharge meds aren't signed. Put this back where it belongs by making management deal with this.

Yes they are signing his name

14 minutes ago, LibraSunCNM said:

I don't know where on earth it would be legal to forge a doctor's signature on a prescription, be it for Colace or Oxycontin. That is absolutely crazy and I wouldn't do it. If the MD gave me crap about it I'd just continue to assert my (logical) argument that what they're asking you to do is insane.

Yes I am going to let the department manager know about it

[JBudd, MSN]

Good Lord! NO!

You can take verbal orders, and they are written as verbal or telephone orders with your name and the MD's; but it still has to be cosigned whether electronic or on paper.

As said above, signing his name (without yours) is forgery.