Protocol · PharmD · South Dakota
Practice Protocol for Pharmacists in South Dakota
Required. South Dakota law names the instrument a Protocol. Below: the board that governs it, what it must contain, and the terms it has to carry.
Represents SD's protocol-based drug-therapy-management authority (SDCL 36-11-19.1(6)), not ordinary dispensing licensure, which is out of scope here. Pharmacists may 'initiate or modify drug therapy by protocol...established and approved within a licensed health care facility or by a practitioner authorized to prescribe drugs' — recently amended by SL 2025, ch 154.
What a South Dakota Protocol must contain
Governed by the South Dakota Board of Pharmacy. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the Protocol must satisfy.
South Dakota does not require the Pharmacist to enter into a formal collaborative practice agreement with a physician as a condition of pharmacy licensure or practice. Rather, S.D. Codified Laws § 36-11-19.1 permits the Pharmacist to initiate or modify a patient's drug therapy pursuant to a protocol established and approved either within a licensed health care facility or by a practitioner authorized to prescribe drugs; South Dakota statute does not itself prescribe mandatory contents, a board-filing requirement, or a renewal cycle for that protocol.
Source: S.D. Codified Laws § 36-11-19.1
This Agreement's terms regarding the Pharmacist accordingly serve to define the working relationship between the Parties and any protocol they elect to establish under S.D. Codified Laws § 36-11-19.1, and are not themselves required by South Dakota law as a condition of the Pharmacist's authority to practice.
- The Protocol also carries 1 scope, 1 education and 1 registration clauses, authored in the document itself.
Statutes and rules these clauses cite
Terms it has to carry
Ratio, proximity, chart review, meeting and prescribing terms the Protocol has to carry, from South Dakota'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
SDCL 36-11-2.2 expressly states the practice of pharmacy 'does not authorize a pharmacist to prescribe drugs as a practitioner.' The protocol-based drug-therapy-management authority in 36-11-19.1(6) allows initiating/modifying already-prescribed therapy, not independent prescribing; no controlled-substance-specific authority was found.
Written agreement
Required
South Dakota's statute uses 'protocol ... established and approved' rather than a named 'collaborative practice agreement' document, a functionally similar gating concept to other states' CPAs; the exact form and content requirements are not spelled out.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — No pharmacist-ownership requirement identified for a general pharmacy permit, consistent with the permissive pattern in most states
About South Dakota's rules
SD is unusually permissive: NP/CNM need only 1,040 practice hours (or a collaborative agreement with ANY physician OR already-independent NP/CNM) to become fully independent (SDCL 36-9A), and a 2025 reform (SL 2025, ch 149) gives PAs the same kind of pathway after 6,000 hours plus NCCPA certification. Older sources citing a fixed PA-per-physician ratio are now outdated — that cap was repealed.
Other clinicians in South Dakota: see the state overview.