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Written Protocol · PharmD

New Mexico Written Guidelines or Protocol for Pharmacists

Required. The Written Guidelines or Protocol is the written instrument New Mexico 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.

Practice authoritySupervision required
Written agreementAgreement required
What New Mexico calls itWritten Guidelines or Protocol
Governing boardNew Mexico Board of Pharmacy
Agreement familyPrescriptive Authority
Research date2026-09-03 · clauses 2026-09-03

Represents New Mexico's 'pharmacist clinician' credential under the Pharmacist Prescriptive Authority Act (§§ 61-11B-1 to -3, NMSA) — a nationally distinctive, more advanced tier than a typical CPA state, but still requires registering a named supervising physician and a protocol of collaborative practice with the New Mexico medical board, not just the pharmacy board. Base dispensing licensure needs no physician agreement and is out of scope here.

What a New Mexico Written Guidelines or Protocol must contain

Governed by the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the agreement must satisfy.

  1. New Mexico does not grant prescriptive authority to a pharmacist solely by virtue of ordinary pharmacist licensure. A Pharmacist who has separately obtained the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy's "pharmacist clinician" certification may exercise prescriptive authority, but only pursuant to written guidelines or a protocol established and approved by the Physician, who must be in active practice and may grant authority only within the Physician's own current scope of practice, as provided under the Pharmacist Prescriptive Authority Act, NMSA 1978 §§ 61-11B-1 to 61-11B-3.

    Source: NMSA 1978 §§ 61-11B-1 to 61-11B-3 (Pharmacist Prescriptive Authority Act)

  2. A copy of the written guidelines or protocol shall be kept on file at the Pharmacist's place of practice and filed with the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy.

    Source: 16.19.4 NMAC

  3. The Written Guidelines or Protocol on file also carries 1 scope, 1 education, 1 registration, 1 authority clauses, generated in the document itself.

Statutes and rules cited

  1. NMSA 1978 §§ 61-11B-1 to 61-11B-3 (Pharmacist Prescriptive Authority Act)statute

    Official New Mexico Medical Board-hosted compilation of NMSA 1978 Chapter 61, including the Pharmacist Prescriptive Authority Act governing pharmacist clinician prescriptive authority.

  2. 16.19.4 NMACregulation

    New Mexico Board of Pharmacy rule governing pharmacist clinician certification, protocol requirements, and prescriptive authority.

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

Separate prescribing terms required · no controlled-substance authority

Prescriptive authority is exercised 'in accordance with guidelines or protocol' registered with the medical board (16.19.4.18 NMAC); this research pass found no affirmative grant of controlled-substance prescribing under that protocol — coded False as the more conservative default given the absence of a confirmed grant, not a confirmed statutory bar. Verify with the Board of Pharmacy/Medical Board before relying on this.

Written agreement

Required

Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)

Non-licensee ownership permitted — No pharmacist-ownership requirement was found in New Mexico pharmacy licensing statute/rule for this research pass — pharmacy ownership appears materially more permissive than the professional-corporation framework governing physicians/APRNs above.

Whether New Mexico requires a designated pharmacist-in-charge with retained professional control was not independently confirmed in this pass.

Legal sources for these rules (3)
How the relationship works day to day
Who has to be where, how often you meet, and what the physician costs: Pharmacist in New Mexico on collaborativeagreement.com.

About New Mexico's rules

New Mexico has no corporate-practice-of-medicine doctrine (1987 A.G. opinion) — non-physician entities may employ physicians if clinical judgment isn't controlled — but professional corporations must still be single-profession owned (a PA/NP/etc. entity can't mix ownership with physicians). NP/CRNA/CNM/CNS practice independently with full prescriptive authority (Schedules II–V); PA remains the outlier requiring ongoing physician involvement.

Other clinicians in New Mexico: see the state overview.