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| State investigating prison pharmacists over medication errors |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/11/2004 |
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The Ohio State Pharmacy Board plans to investigate complaints from prison officials that pharmacists for inmates at two prisons provided wrong or mislabeled medicines. Pharmacy Systems Inc.'s contract to provide drugs for London Correctional Institution and neighboring Madison Correctional Institution was terminated March 5, less than a year into the company's two-year, $575,000 agreement. Prison medical staff caught the errors before any incorrect pills were given to inmates, and no prisoners were hurt, Andrea Dean, spokeswoman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said on Monday. A typical investigation looks first at how the error happened and the overall way the pharmacy was run. He said the board has not received documentation yet from prisons officials about the problems. The company defended its work at the prisons. "We have the utmost confidence in the employees we provided and the work they performed," the company said in a statement. "These employees, along with our regional supervisory staff, worked many hours in excess of those anticipated." The company said the decision to terminate the contract was mutual. Prison officials began complaining within months after Pharmacy Systems start work at the prisons, both about 25 miles west of Columbus. Prisons records and e-mails reviewed by The Columbus Dispatch showed mistakes by pharmacists and repeated failures to promptly fill prescriptions marked as urgent. The mistakes included eardrops that were substituted for eyedrops and incorrectly labeled pills that could have had "life-threatening consequences" if inmates had taken them, prison officials wrote. A company that provides temporary health care workers, Health Pro, was called in to help straighten out the pharmacy and fill hundreds of backlogged orders. The prison system has hired Central Pharmacy Inpatient, a nonprofit arm of the Ohio Department of Mental Health, to operate the pharmacy through June 2005. |
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I condemn such errors. In my organisation it would be that everyone works under FDA regulatory services and that is always the case to sworn by to these rules. State investigation problems never arise in such ways.