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A Los Angeles pharmacy was a little too busy
Thursday, December 10, 2009
A California appellate court upheld state authorities’ decision to terminate a Los Angeles pharmacy’s Medi-Cal contract after investigators witnessed employees who were not pharmacists dispensing drugs.
In addition to witnessing the bad dispensing practices, California Department of Health Care Services investigators noted that that Golden Drugs Pharmacy’s monthly Medi-Cal payments increased from a monthly average of $82,240 in 2003 to $280,109 in 2005.
The pharmacy own reports show it had dispensed 282 prescriptions or 35 per hour on one day in November, 364 prescriptions or 43 per hour on another day, and 406 prescriptions or 50 per hour on third day.
At the time, the pharmacy had only one pharmacist on hand.
The California Court of Appeal affirmed a ruling by Superior Court Judge Gail D. Ohanesian of Sacramento rejecting the pharmacy’s appeal of the order terminating its contract.
“Clearly, there is a rational connection between a threat to public welfare and an unauthorized, unsupervised person distributing drugs into containers for delivery to customers’ homes,” the court said in a decision written by Justice Rick Sims.
Golden Drugs CO., INC. v. David Maxwell-Jolly, Director California Department of Health Care Services Court of Appeal 3rd District (C058178)
–Steve Ingram
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Category: Appellate Reports;