Find and check care
Check the person, then the pharmacy.
Write down the person’s full name and the letters after it. Match those letters to the right board rather than searching only the business name.
Choose the board for that kind of health professional.
A licensing board is a state body; it keeps records for one kind of health professional.
MD and DO are two titles for doctors. Arizona uses separate boards to check their licences, as checked October 3, 2026.
- MD means medical doctor; use the Arizona Medical Board’s Doctor Search.
- For a doctor with the title DO, use Arizona’s Find your DO page to check the licence.
- NP means nurse practitioner, a nurse who can make care decisions. Use the Nursing Board links to check the nurse’s licence and advanced-practice certificate. That certificate records the wider nursing role.
- PA means physician assistant; physician is another word for doctor. A PA is a health professional with their own licence. PAs may order medicine within Arizona’s rules for their training and work with doctors. Use the PA board’s PA Search to check the licence.
A licence is the start of the check.
A nurse practitioner needed the Nursing Board’s permission to order medicines, as of October 3, 2026. That permission applies only to the patient groups covered by the nurse’s training.
Ask whether the nurse’s training and permission cover people your age and your health problem.
An online search is not a complete account of a health professional’s past.
Arizona limits how long some board decisions about a health professional’s conduct stay on its website. The limit is no more than five years, as checked October 6, 2026. These are final decisions with or without penalties. Ask the board for older public records.
Required public board meeting records and meeting announcements do not have those website limits. These include meeting minutes, the written account of what happened.
- A board order is a formal written decision about a person’s licence or conduct. Read any orders linked to the record. Look for what the board decided and any limits on the person’s care.
- Ask the person treating you to explain their role in your proposed care.
Check the pharmacy as its own business.
The pharmacist’s licence and the pharmacy’s permit are separate records.
To send medicine into Arizona, a pharmacy based elsewhere needed an Arizona permit and permission where it was based, as of October 3, 2026.
- Get the pharmacy’s full name before you pay.
- Ask the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy how to confirm the permit.
- Keep the name on any medicine label for comparison with that answer.