Protocol · PharmD · South Carolina
Practice Protocol for Pharmacists in South Carolina
Required. South Carolina law names the instrument a Collaborative Practice Agreement, and the clinical protocol is the content that instrument carries. Below: the board that governs it, what it must contain, and the terms it has to carry.
Represents SC's Collaborative Practice Agreement (CPA) tier for medication-management services (Ch. 43), not ordinary dispensing licensure, which is out of scope here. The CPA framework is codified but implementation is contingent on the Board of Pharmacy and Board of Medical Examiners finalizing regulations governing its use — confirm those regulations are in effect before relying on this.
What a South Carolina Collaborative Practice Agreement must contain
Governed by the South Carolina Board of Pharmacy. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the Collaborative Practice Agreement must satisfy.
South Carolina enacted legislation, effective May 18, 2026, authorizing a written collaborative practice agreement between a South Carolina-licensed pharmacist and a South Carolina-licensed physician (both actively practicing and physically located in the State) to provide evidence-based medication management and related patient care services supporting treatment goals the Physician establishes. As of the date of this Agreement, however, collaborative practice agreements may not be implemented until the South Carolina Board of Pharmacy and the South Carolina Board of Medical Examiners adopt regulations governing their use, which had not yet occurred. Until those regulations take effect, the Pharmacist practices under general South Carolina Board of Pharmacy licensure only, and no collaborative practice agreement under this statute is operative.
Source: 2026 S.C. Act No. 166 (S.449), codified at S.C. Code §§ 40-43-245 and 40-47-205
- The Collaborative Practice Agreement also carries 1 registration and 1 authority clauses, authored in the document itself.
Statutes and rules these clauses cite
- 2026 S.C. Act No. 166 (S.449), codified at S.C. Code §§ 40-43-245 and 40-47-205statute
Authorizes collaborative practice agreements between a South Carolina pharmacist and physician, effective May 18, 2026, but provides that such agreements may not be implemented until the South Carolina Board of Pharmacy and Board of Medical Examiners adopt implementing regulations.
Terms it has to carry
Ratio, proximity, chart review, meeting and prescribing terms the Collaborative Practice Agreement has to carry, from South Carolina'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
§ 40-43-30's CPA definition covers 'evidence-based medication management services' delegated by the physician (for example monitoring, education and assessments for identified patients); no provision authorizes independent controlled-substance prescribing under a CPA, so controlled substances are shown as not allowed.
Written agreement
Required
The written CPA itself is defined in statute (§40-43-30), but by that same statute's terms 'collaborative practice agreements may not be implemented until' Board regulations governing their use take effect — verify current implementation status with the Board of Pharmacy.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — No pharmacist-ownership requirement for a general pharmacy permit; large non-pharmacist-owned chain pharmacies operate openly in South Carolina
A pharmacist-in-charge safeguard, not an ownership restriction, is the typical control mechanism; check Ch. 43 for the specific provision.
Sources for the supervision rules (2)
About South Carolina's rules
A physician may not hold practice agreements/scope-of-practice guidelines with more than a COMBINED 6 full-time-equivalent PA+NP+CNM+CNS at once (§40-47-195(D)(1)(c)) — a single shared cap, not four separate ones. A widely-repeated '3 PA' cap was repealed in 2019 (Act 32). SC remains restricted-practice for APRNs; a 2,000-hour full-practice-authority bill (S.45/H.3580) is pending, not yet law.
Other clinicians in South Carolina: see the state overview.