What does a hyphen in a DEA number indicate?

A hyphen in a DEA number indicates that it signifies a physician's prescription under a hospital's DEA number. This detail is crucial for distinguishing between different registrations in the context of controlled substances.

When a physician works within a hospital setting, they may utilize the hospital's DEA number rather than obtaining their own individual DEA number. In such cases, the hyphenated format helps identify prescriptions written by those physicians while still maintaining the accountability to the hospital's DEA registration. This format aids in the tracking and verification of prescriptions, ensuring that they are properly attributed to actions taken under the authority of the hospital's registration rather than that of the individual physician.

Understanding how DEA numbers work, and the implications of formatting such as hyphens, is critical for compliance with legal and regulatory requirements in pharmacy practice. The options indicating a distributor's function, pharmacy registration, or expired registration do not pertain to the specific significance of a hyphen in the context of a DEA number and its association with prescription writing under hospital authority.