Records & evidence · California
Check the person, pharmacy and medicine.
Use the names of the person giving care, the pharmacy and the medicine to check what a California service tells you.
The person giving care
The pharmacy’s name
The exact medicine
Follow the person
Start with a name you can look up
California’s public licence search lets you check whether a licence has expired or is still current. It also shows penalties imposed by the board that issues licences. A penalty can stop the person using the licence or take it away. Source checked September 28, 2026.
California’s boards for licensing doctors share that search, so start there. Source checked September 28, 2026.
Ask the person giving care for their full name and their licence number. Ask what kind of licence they hold, such as a doctor’s or a nurse’s licence. Use those details to find the right record.
Nurse practitioners are nurses with training in assessing patients and ordering medicines. Use the nursing board’s records to check that person’s licence. Source checked September 28, 2026.
A physician assistant, or PA, gives care with a supervising doctor in California. Check the licence in the Physician Assistant Board’s records. Source checked September 28, 2026.
Check the promise
Can a badge replace the checks?
FDA means the Food and Drug Administration.
Does “FDA registered” settle it?
The FDA explains that a maker can register with it without the agency approving that maker or its medicines. Source checked September 26, 2026.
Keep going: ask about the product itself.
Does a medicine number prove approval?
National Drug Code is the full name for NDC, a number that identifies a drug product. The FDA’s drug list uses these numbers. The number does not show that the FDA has approved the medicine. Source checked September 26, 2026.
If a label or advert gives an NDC number, ask to see the exact medicine’s approval record.
Follow the medicine
Ask which pharmacy makes it
California’s pharmacy licence search lists a separate licence for “sterile compounding”: making medicines free of living germs. If the pharmacy makes these medicines, look for that licence as well as its regular pharmacy licence. Source checked September 28, 2026.
A pharmacy in another state must also have a California licence to ship prescription medicine here. Source checked September 28, 2026.
Ask for the pharmacy’s name before paying. Search that name rather than the online service’s brand.
Follow the evidence
Is the study about this product?
Ask for the medicine’s official information sheet and the study behind any claimed benefit.
The FDA warns about a promise sometimes made for pharmacy-made medicines: “proven to work the same” as an approved medicine. It calls that promise misleading. Source checked September 26, 2026.
Look for the exact product, the people studied, what was measured, and what the study could not answer. Those are useful questions to take to a care discussion.
If something feels wrong
Where can a concern go?
California’s medical board accepts written complaints about medical doctors, including complaints sent online. It cannot arrange your care or pay you money for harm you suffered. Source checked September 28, 2026.
The pharmacy board’s complaint process handles concerns about pharmacies. It does not settle routine disputes about drug prices or insurance bills. Source checked September 28, 2026.
For severe symptoms
When does a concern need urgent help?
Severe allergic reactions need emergency help. For severe symptoms, including trouble breathing, MedlinePlus advises: call 911 or go to the closest emergency room. Source checked September 17, 2026.