Point-of-care testing refers to diagnostic or screening tests performed at the location where the patient is, with results available quickly, rather than a sample being sent out to a separate clinical laboratory. Pharmacies have become one of the more common non-traditional settings for this kind of testing, given their accessibility and the fact that pharmacists are frequently a patient’s most reachable healthcare contact.
Offering point-of-care testing in a pharmacy involves more than clinical capability — it requires the pharmacy and pharmacist to meet applicable federal laboratory-testing requirements (see CLIA Waiver) as well as any state-level authorization for pharmacists to perform or interpret the specific tests being offered.
Why it matters
Point-of-care testing is frequently the first step in a test-and-treat pathway, but the two are not the same thing: a pharmacist or pharmacy can be authorized to perform testing without also holding the authority to act on the result by initiating treatment. Because both the testing authorization and any associated treatment authority are governed separately, and both vary by state, pharmacists expanding into these services need to track each layer independently.
This entry explains the general concept only, not a specific test or clinical protocol. RxByState tracks state-specific point-of-care testing authority for pharmacists at https://app.rxbystate.com/signup.