Visiting a Compounding Pharmacy Before You Partner: A Checklist for Clinics

Why a visit is worth the trip

Choosing a fulfillment pharmacy is a long-term decision for a clinic or telehealth program. Your patients will open the box, read the label and call the number on it. A website and a sales call tell you a lot, but seeing the operation in person settles questions that are hard to answer over email.

That is why we invite clinics and partners of any kind to schedule a site visit to our pharmacy in Johnson City, Tennessee, where we have served patients since 1936. Here is a checklist you can bring, whichever pharmacies are on your list.

Before you go: check the paperwork

A few things are worth confirming before you book travel:

• Licensure in every state you serve. A pharmacy that ships to your patients needs a license in each of their states. Our 50-state pharmacy licensure checklist shows how to verify it with each state board. We are licensed in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
• Accreditation. PCAB accreditation is an independent review of a compounding pharmacy's quality systems. Our PCAB accreditation page explains what it covers.
• The type of compounding. Ask whether the pharmacy compounds non-sterile preparations, sterile preparations or both, and which USP chapters it follows. We compound non-sterile preparations under USP 795, with USP 800 for hazardous drugs.

On the day: what to ask

• Who reviews each prescription? At our pharmacy, a pharmacist reviews every prescription before it is prepared.
• How do orders come in, and how does status come back? We take orders by direct API connection, e-prescribing or our provider portal. Our API integration page covers how that works.
• What will your patients see? If your brand belongs on the package, ask to see labels, packaging and inserts. We offer full white-label fulfillment.
• How is potency checked? Ask how often testing happens and who performs it. At our pharmacy, potency testing is performed periodically through a third-party laboratory, depending on the preparation.
• Who is your day-to-day contact? A dedicated account manager is introduced during onboarding and stays with your program after go-live.
• How are new formulas developed? If you plan a formula of your own, ask how development works. Ours starts with scheduled meetings with our formula development team ahead of launch. Formulas are then researched, developed and tested before they roll out to your staff.
• How is patient data protected? Our page on pharmacy HIPAA compliance sets out how we handle it.
• How long does compounding take? Ask about compounding time separately from shipping. We have a 48-hour compounding time on most preparations. Shipping time is additional.

Booking a visit with us

Mention a visit in the inquiry form on any of our partner pages, such as compounding pharmacy for telehealth clinics, or call 423-975-0597, and we will set a date with you.

If you would rather start with the paperwork, you can begin clinic onboarding. Our formulary catalog is shared once onboarding is complete. For more questions to bring, see questions to ask a compounding pharmacy partner.

Compounded preparations are not reviewed or approved by the FDA for safety or efficacy. This article is general information for clinics and is not legal or medical advice.