Collaborative Practice Agreement · PharmD
Rhode Island Written Collaborative Practice Agreement for Pharmacists
Required. The Written Collaborative Practice Agreement is the written instrument Rhode Island law names for a Pharmacist working with a physician. Below: the board that governs it, what it must contain, and the terms it has to carry.
Represents RI's Collaborative Pharmacy Practice tier (Ch. 5-19.2) for drug therapy management, not ordinary dispensing licensure, which is out of scope here. Unusually burdensome approval chain: each agreement needs sign-off from the Board of Pharmacy, then the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline, then the Director, before practice may begin.
What a Rhode Island Written Collaborative Practice Agreement must contain
Governed by the Rhode Island Board of Pharmacy. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the agreement must satisfy.
The Pharmacist may engage in collaborative pharmacy practice with the Physician only under a written collaborative practice agreement, entered into voluntarily, that defines the collaborative pharmacy practice the Parties propose to undertake. To participate, the Pharmacist must be a Rhode Island-licensed pharmacist with a bachelor of science in pharmacy and postgraduate training relevant to the proposed practice, or a doctor of pharmacy degree.
Source: R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 5-19.2 (Collaborative Pharmacy Practice)
The collaborative practice agreement is not effective until approved by the Rhode Island Board of Pharmacy, the Rhode Island Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline, and the Director of Health, any of whom may require revisions as a condition of approval.
Source: R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 5-19.2 (Collaborative Pharmacy Practice)
- The Written Collaborative Practice Agreement on file also carries 1 education, 1 registration clauses, generated in the document itself.
Statutes and rules cited
- R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 5-19.2 (Collaborative Pharmacy Practice)statute
Defines a collaborative practice agreement between a pharmacist with advanced training and a physician, and establishes the collaborative practice committee and Board approval process.
Terms it has to carry
Ratio, proximity, chart review, meeting and prescribing terms the agreement has to carry, from the state's supervision rules.
Proximity
Not codified — left to the agreement
Supervision ratio
Not codified — no cap on file
Chart review
Not codified — left to the agreement
Meeting cadence
Not codified — left to the agreement
Prescriptive authority
Covered by the practice agreement · no controlled-substance authority
Ch. 5-19.2 authorizes 'drug therapy management' (initiating/adjusting therapy) under a protocol approved by the collaborating physician(s), the Board of Pharmacy, the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline, and the Director — no provision authorizing independent controlled-substance prescribing under this chapter was found; set to False rather than assumed.
Written agreement
Required
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — Pharmacists are not among the healing-arts licensees enumerated in the § 7-5.1-1 Professional Service Corporation statute — pharmacy ownership is instead governed by RI's separate pharmacy-licensing statute (Title 5, Ch. 19.1), which this research pass did not confirm imposes a pharmacist-ownership requirement.
Treat non-licensee ownership as the probable default (consistent with NC/VA's permissive pharmacy-ownership pattern), not a confirmed finding.
Legal sources for these rules (1)
About Rhode Island's rules
RI is a Full Practice Authority state for NP/CNM (R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-34-44) and, since a 2019 reform (§ 5-54-8), no longer requires PAs to have a written practice agreement — 'collaboration' with an always-accessible physician replaced supervision and hospital ratio caps. CRNAs are the exception: RI has NOT taken the Medicare physician-supervision opt-out, and CRNA scope is statutorily bounded to the perioperative period.
Other clinicians in Rhode Island: see the state overview.