All of the details in our health safety stories come from publicly available Virginia Department of Health Professionals final orders, consent orders, suspension orders, and other documents. Unless otherwise noted, direct quotations are taken from these documents. For more information, see the editors’ note below the story.
STAUNTONIncorrectly dispensed medications, untrained staff and a long production backlog of 700 prescriptions are just a few of the problems found in a Virginia Department of Health Professions order against Kroger Pharmacy #343 at 850 Statler Boulevard in Staunton.
On November 2, 2022, a doctor made a phone call to the pharmacy, giving the staff the necessary documents and information for their patient to get the medication they prescribed.
The patient came the next day. They waited while the staff tried to find the recipe, but eventually left empty-handed.
The next day, the patient tried again. They got the same result. Fed up, the patient made a few phone calls and picked up the drug from another pharmacy.
Finally, the patient received a call to inform them that the medication was ready for collection.
It was November 24.
When an inspector arrived on December 8, he found the script. According to the label, it was filled on November 4th. However, the pharmacy manager told the inspector that the prescription was filled on November 25.
Kroger Pharmacy continued to work on its production queue. The inspector found more than 700 drugs in the queue. More than 600 were beyond the promised date, the day a patient should be able to pick up their prescription.
The Virginia Board of Pharmacy issued a consent order against Kroger Pharmacy in August 2023. The order contains a list of errors that could arise when rushing through a medication queue by dispensing the wrong medication, dispensing the same medication twice, and incorrectly transcribing the doctor’s instructions about the medication on the package. The order says:
- Between June 29 and August 21, the pharmacy had unexplained losses of controlled substances including gabapentin, tramadol and promethazine with codeine syrup.
- One prescription, prednisone, was dispensed twice, once on July 1st and once on August 11th.
- On or about July 8, 2022, Kroger Pharmacy dispensed 90 oxycodone IR 20 mg tablets (C-II) instead of the prescribed 90 oxycodone IR 15 mg tablets and failed to report the error, when was discovered, either by the patient or the prescriber. .
- On July 20, the pharmacy dispensed triamcinolone cream 0.025% #80g, but the prescription was for triamcinolone cream 0.25% #30g.
The order points to one reason for the lack of staff in the long production queue.
The pharmacy did not hire enough pharmacists and/or pharmacy technicians to address the volume of prescriptions in a timely manner, the order says. Additionally, several pharmacy technicians and pharmacy technician trainees quit or were fired in July 2022 after complaining about working conditions.
In interviews with an inspector, one pharmacist said they were pressured to start serving as a pharmacist-in-charge before completing training. The previous pharmacist in charge had to train the incoming manager in all management duties when four shifts overlapped before she was transferred to a different store in July 2022.
A trainee pharmacy technician told the inspector they had to work in shifts before completing the required training modules. The consent order explains: “She resigned after telling the HR representative that she did not have time for training and felt uncomfortable handling patient medications without additional training.” it happened.
The pharmacy took the medical boards equivalent of a plea of no contest in criminal court, the location neither admits nor denies the allegations in the order, but waives its right to contest the allegations and accepts any penalty imposed on continuation
These penalties include:
- A monetary penalty of $10,000.
- The pharmacy license was placed on indefinite probation for not less than one year.
- The pharmacy will submit quarterly reports to the council outlining its weekly staffing schedules and weekly prescription volume for the previous quarter.
Prior to the August order, another consent order was entered in September 2022. According to the order, the pharmacy failed to complete a controlled substance inventory before a new pharmacist-in-charge took over in September 2021. The order required Kroger to pay the board $1,000.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: When citizens are a danger to public safety, law enforcement arrests them and charges them with crimes; they have the opportunity to face a jury of their peers; if convicted, they serve time and/or probation that can often trap them in the system for years.
When a medical professional is an alleged danger to public safety, the Virginia Department of Health Professionals handles all facets of the investigation, including investigation and penalties. And sometimes, even when a medical professional is found responsible for harming patients, they may face a reprimand, pay a fine, and continue to practice, without missing a day of work and with little chance for the public to look what he did
The health safety stories in this series tell the facts of cases where medical professionals put our public health safety at risk. They also take you into the world of medical advice consent orders and final public orders, so you can see exactly how the VDHPs’ self-monitoring system works.
Lyra Bordelon (she) is the public transparency and justice reporter for The News Leader. Have a story suggestion or feedback? You are welcome by email atlbordelon@gannett.com. Subscribe to usatnewsleader.com.
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