The Ohio Board of Pharmacy announced on Thursday that it has imposed $1.5 million in penalties to retail pharmacy chain CVS Health. This is the largest penalty ever imposed by the state board.
The board investigated 27 cases involving safety and understaffing. These issues were reported in 22 CVS Pharmacies. The investigation alleges safety concerns and potential legal violations between 2020 and 2023. The results were that understaffing was a major factor for these violations.
Inspectors also found that understaffing led to not enough staff to handle the volume of prescriptions per day, dispensing errors, dirty equipment, expired medications, trash throughout the pharmacies, poor drug security, and failure to report losses of controlled substances,among other issues.
"By entering into this settlement agreement, the Board seeks immediate and systemic changes to protect patients and address critical understaffing. We believe that this agreement is an acknowledgment by CVS that considerable changes are warranted to ensure the safe practice of pharmacy at their retail stores," executive director of the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy, Steven Schierholt said.
Amy Thibault, spokeswoman for CVS Pharmacy said...
"CVS is pleased to have reached an agreement with the Ohio Board of Pharmacy regarding years-old allegations involving some of our Ohio pharmacies and that the company looks forward to working with the board, including on enhancing our positive identification systems, and continuing to provide safe, high-quality pharmacy care to our patients. We're committed to ensuring there are appropriate levels of staffing and resources at our pharmacies and and are making targeted investments. That includes increasing pharmacist wages roughly $1 billion between 2021 and 2024 and awarding roughly $70 million in bonuses this year to pharmacist, pharmacy technicians, and other frontline colleagues"
By - SC
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