NYCL AGO 95-F7.

• Case Date: November 21, 1995
• Court: New York

New York Attorney General Opinions 1995. AGO 95-F7. November 21, 1995Formal Opinion No. 95-F7Hon. Barbara A. DeBuono Commissioner NYS Department of Health Corning Tower Empire State Plaza Albany, NY 12237 Hon. Richard P. MillsCommissioner NYS Department of Education State Education Building Albany, NY 12234EDUCATION LAW §§ 6501(4), 6521, 6522, 6801, 6803, 6805, 6810. 6902; 8 NYCRR Parts 60, 63, § 60.8; 10 NYCRR 405.4(f)(2).Prescriptions written by residents and interns in the hospital where they are employed, while they are practicing under the supervision of a licensed physician, may be filled at any licensed pharmacy.Dear Commissioners DeBuono and Mills: Your counsels have asked us to reconsider a portion of an opinion issued by the Attorney General in 1950 regarding the interpretation of the provisions then contained in Education Law § 6512. In that opinion, the Attorney General concluded that non-licensed hospital interns, who were permitted to practice medicine in a legally incorporated hospital as duly appointed members of the resident staff, could write prescriptions, including prescriptions for controlled substances, but such prescriptions could not be filled anywhere other than at the hospital pharmacy. 1950 Op Atty Gen 164. In reaching this conclusion, the Attorney General stated:

Presumably, the internes [sic] you have in mind are physicians who, although not licensed to practice medicine in this State, are nevertheless permitted to practice medicine in a legally incorporated hospital as duly appointed members of the resident staff, pursuant to Education Law, Section 6512, subd. 1, para. b, which reads in part as follows:

"1. This article shall not be construed to affect or prevent the following:

"b. The practice of medicine in a legally incorporated hospital by a physician duly appointed as member of the resident staff . .

It seems to me that inasmuch as such a physician's practice is restricted to the hospital in which he is appointed, he may not issue a prescription for any medication, whether narcotic or non-narcotic, to be filled other than at the pharmacy supply of that hospital. In other words, the activities of such a physician with respect to the treatment of patients, etc., including the writing and filling of prescriptions, may not extend beyond the province of the hospital itself if he

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