When I first started agency work at retail shops, one of the first I filled in the patient came to the counter stated she’d run out on a holiday weekend, and her supply was filled at a mail-out pharmacy. I’ve gone over the scenario several times in my mind since. It was a blood pressure medication and the prescription drug strength had increased she said since it’d been filled in the shop. Technically I had nothing in writing to go on, so I refused. Since then, I’ve concluded that I could’ve technically filled her a weekend supply of the previous script (if still active in our computer system), or had the woman bring in her mail-out script bottle.

I’d think ‘emergency supply’ would be more helpful terminology since it might be unclear as to whom the drug was an ‘owing’.