Protocol · PharmD · Oregon
Practice Protocol for Pharmacists in Oregon
Recognized but not required in every case. Oregon law names the instrument a CDTM Protocol, and the clinical protocol is the content that instrument carries. Below: the board that governs it, what it contains when one is used, and the supervision rules that apply either way.
Oregon grants pharmacists direct statutory prescriptive authority for a Board-defined formulary (ORS 689.645: diabetic supplies, emergency insulin, albuterol, epinephrine, smoking-cessation aids and similar) and for hormonal contraceptives (ORS 689.689), grounded in statute and, for the formulary, a prior diagnosis by another prescriber, not a physician collaboration or CDTM agreement. Whether a separate agreement-based collaborative drug therapy management pathway also exists is not covered here.
What a voluntary Pharmacist protocol covers in Oregon
Oregon requires no written protocol for pharmacists. These are the clauses a practice includes when it chooses to put one in writing. The Oregon Board of Pharmacy governs pharmacists here.
The Pharmacist may participate in Collaborative Drug Therapy Management ("CDTM") for the Physician's patients only under a written CDTM protocol between the Physician (or the Physician's organized medical group) and the Pharmacist (or the Pharmacist's pharmacy). CDTM is valid only as applied to a drug therapy the Physician has already initiated by a prescription order for the specific patient; the protocol does not authorize the Pharmacist to initiate new drug therapy independent of such an order.
Source: OAR 855-019-0260
The CDTM protocol shall identify the participating pharmacists and practitioners, designate a principal pharmacist and practitioner responsible for its oversight, describe the types of decisions the Pharmacist may make (including the disease and drug categories covered, the procedures to follow, and the documentation and communication methods to use), and set out the training and competency the Pharmacist must have to participate. The protocol may not be used to permit therapeutic substitution outside its terms.
Source: OAR 855-019-0260
- The CDTM Protocol also carries 1 scope and 1 registration clauses, authored in the document itself.
Statutes and rules these clauses cite
- OAR 855-019-0260regulation
Oregon Board of Pharmacy rule governing Collaborative Drug Therapy Management (CDTM) protocols between a pharmacist and a practitioner.
What Oregon does require
The supervision and prescribing rules that apply to pharmacists regardless of any protocol.
Proximity
Not codified
Supervision ratio
Not codified — no cap on file
Chart review
Not codified
Meeting cadence
Not codified
Prescriptive authority
No agreement needed to prescribe · no controlled-substance authority
Neither statutory authority researched here extends to DEA-scheduled controlled substances; whether any separate Oregon pharmacist authority reaches controlled substances (e.g. naloxone, which is not scheduled) was not exhaustively checked.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional for the statutory formulary and contraceptive authority covered here; no physician agreement is required for either. Whether a distinct agreement-based CDTM pathway also exists in Oregon, as in many other states, is not covered here.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — Drug outlets register with the State Board of Pharmacy (ORS 689.305) and may be corporate entities; the statute contemplates employees of a registered corporation, implying corporate ownership is permitted under the usual pharmacist-in-charge model. Confirm the specific pharmacist-in-charge provision
Materially more permissive than the physician/PA/NP/APRN entity-ownership rules above.
Sources for the supervision rules (4)
About Oregon's rules
Oregon has no physician-supervision requirement for NP/CNS/CRNA and replaced PA 'supervision' with a non-supervisory 'collaboration agreement' (ORS 677.495-677.525, recodified by H.B. 4010, eff. June 6, 2024). CNM and PMHNP are population foci under the single NP license (OAR 851-050-0005), not separate license categories. CRNA/CNS entity co-ownership with physicians is unconfirmed — ORS 58.376 names only physicians, PAs, and NPs.
Other clinicians in Oregon: see the state overview.