336.220. Pharmaceuticals, certification for administering required--referral to physician required, when--standard of care--rulemaking authority.

MISSOURI STATUTES AND CODES

336.220. Pharmaceuticals, certification for administering required--referral to physician required, when--standard of care--rulemaking authority.

Pharmaceuticals, certification for administering required--referral tophysician required, when--standard of care--rulemaking authority.

336.220. 1. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection 1 ofsection 336.010, any optometrist who is not certified to use eitherdiagnostic or therapeutic pharmaceutical agents shall continue to beprohibited from administering, dispensing, or prescribing the respectivepharmaceutical agents unless the optometrist has completed an approvedcourse of study and has been certified by the board. Such status shall benoted on the license at each renewal.

2. Any optometrist authorized by the board to administer onlydiagnostic pharmaceutical agents shall refer a patient to a physicianlicensed under chapter 334, RSMo, if an examination of the eyes indicates acondition, including reduced visual acuity, which requires medicaltreatment, further medical diagnosis, or further refraction. This referralis not required on known or previously diagnosed conditions. The record ofthe referral in the optometrist's notes shall have the standing of anybusiness record. Any optometrist violating this section shall be subjectto the provisions of section 336.110.

3. An optometrist's prescriptions for therapeutic pharmaceuticalagents shall be dispensed by a pharmacist licensed under chapter 338, RSMo.When therapeutic pharmaceutical agents are dispensed by an optometrist, theprovisions of section 338.059, RSMo, shall apply.

4. An optometrist certified to use pharmaceutical agents shall beheld to the standard of care in the use of pharmaceutical agents in theoptometrist's diagnosis and treatment as are physicians licensed by theMissouri state board of registration for the healing arts, who exercisethat degree of skill and learning ordinarily used under the same or similarcircumstances by physicians and surgeons engaged in the practice ofmedicine.

5. The board may adopt reasonable rules and regulations providing forthe examination and certification of optometrists who apply to the boardfor authority to administer and prescribe pharmaceutical agents in thepractice of optometry.