If you prescribe compounded preparations — pediatric suspensions, hormone creams, fissure ointments, palliative topicals — the hardest part is rarely the clinical decision. It is remembering exactly how the pharmacy makes the thing: the standard concentration, the base, the strengths that actually exist. Our template library puts all of that on one-page prescription sheets you can print, sign, and fax. This is a guide to what is in it, how it works, and where it is going next.
What it is
Twenty print-ready prescription templates and order sheets at tachepharmacy.com/prescribers, each one page, each built around preparations we compound routinely: topical pain, oral suspensions, mouthrinses, anal fissure ointments, nipple creams, low-dose naltrexone, atropine for myopia control, bioidentical hormones, otic drops, scopolamine gel, hair-loss preparations, phenazopyridine, ED injections, and STI treatment and post-exposure kits for clinics. They are plain web pages — nothing to install, nothing behind a login.
The library was built from two years of our own dispensing records, not guesswork: the preparations on the sheets are the ones Manitoba clinics order from us most, at the concentrations we actually prepare. Compounded oral suspensions alone are prescribed by roughly ninety different Manitoba prescribers.
How to use one
The whole point is that this takes under a minute:
- Open the template from the prescriber resources page.
- Check the boxes — preparation, strength, base. A blank line is always there for something custom.
- Fill in the patient block (name, DOB, sex, PHIN, phone) and the directions.
- Print, sign, and fax to (204) 231-1739 — or print to PDF and send it through your EMR fax. Each sheet carries the prescription certification line your records need.
When the fax arrives, a pharmacist reviews it before preparation and calls only if something genuinely needs clarifying. That is the quiet benefit of the checkboxes: fewer interpretation calls in both directions, faster turnaround. We keep our most popular compounds in stock in various strengths — scopolamine gel, naltrexone, Trimix and Quadmix, sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (Septra) suspension, diclofenac pain creams, all-purpose nipple ointments, and hemorrhoid ointments — available same day most of the time; a strength that has just sold out is typically back within a day. Other preparations are typically ready in 24 to 48 hours.
The research behind the formulas
A concentration only earns a checkbox when we can stand behind it. The standard concentrations on the sheets come from published stability studies and recognized formulation references, prepared under USP compounding standards with beyond-use dating to match. That is why the suspensions sheet says sulfamethoxazole 40 mg / trimethoprim 8 mg per mL rather than a blank line: a known concentration in a known vehicle has known stability, known dating, and a known taste profile — and it means a refill is identical to the first fill.
When you write for something off the sheet, we do the same homework before preparing it: confirm a stability-supported concentration and vehicle with you rather than improvise. The "any other medication" line on the suspensions template exists precisely for that conversation.
Why some formulas are not on the sheets
A few preparations you might expect are deliberately absent, for two practical reasons.
First, legality. We source ingredients from suppliers on both sides of the border, but some products that are legal in the United States are not legal in Canada — and a US formulary reference does not change that. If an ingredient cannot legally be compounded here, it will never appear on a sheet.
Second, economics. Some preparations are genuinely expensive: an ingredient can run more than a thousand dollars for a single fill, and urgent cross-border freight can add several hundred more. Many of these ingredients also have short shelf lives, so we do not keep them on hand — stocking them would mean discarding them. We absolutely will procure and prepare these when they are ordered and paid for; they just start with a conversation about cost and timing rather than a checkbox, so nobody is surprised at pickup. If a formula you use is missing, it is worth a phone call — the answer is sometimes "we can, and here is what it costs," and sometimes "here is the closer-to-home option."
Want a sheet we do not have?
If your clinic writes the same compounded prescription repeatedly, tell us the formulation and strengths you use and we will draft a template for your review — call (204) 233-3469, fax (204) 231-1739, or use the contact page. We can also prepare sheets pre-filled with your clinic letterhead and prescriber details. New templates and instruction pages are announced in the newsletter — the sign-up is at the bottom of every page.
What is next: web forms and prefill
The current sheets are print-and-fax by design, because that is how most clinics work today. The next step is already in development: each template as a web form you can fill out in the browser and print, with nothing handwritten but the signature. Alongside it we will be publishing an API so clinics with an approved account can prefill forms from their own systems — patient demographics and prescriber details arriving on the sheet before anyone touches a keyboard. If your clinic wants early access when that ships, mention it when you call, or watch the newsletter.
All compounded preparations are available by prescription only. Patient counselling is provided with each dispensed medication, as required by law in all Manitoba pharmacies.
