Patient Care Technician Certification (PCTC) AMCA Practice Exam

What part of the prescription contains the patient's name, address, date, and symbol RX?

1. Inscription

2. Body

3. Supercription

4. Subscription

The correct answer is: Supercription

The portion of the prescription that contains the patient's name, address, date, and the symbol RX is known as the supercription. This part is essentially the heading of the prescription and serves to identify the patient and provide essential information about them. The symbol RX, which is derived from the Latin word "recipe," indicates that a physician is prescribing something for the patient. The supercription is crucial because it ensures that the medication is accurately directed to the correct patient and serves as an official record for addressing patient-specific needs. The other parts of a prescription, while important, do not contain this specific identifying information. The inscription actually refers to the part that lists the medication being prescribed, the body typically encompasses the details of the prescription itself, and the subscription gives instructions to the pharmacist on how to prepare the medication, neither of which involve patient identification details.