'Suspend, revoke, reprimand, condition or otherwise discipline': Walgreens charged with multiple state-wide violations in Vermont

American pharmacy chain Walgreen Company faces a possible loss or suspension of licence for each of its 32 stores in Vermont, after the state’s Office of Professional Regulation filed charges alleging multiple violations ranging from preventing timely access to essential pharmacy services to failure to provide adequate resources for safe pharmacy practice. In a 40-page document, the state of Vermont detailed a long list of incidents—including “unexpected and unscheduled” closures across the state totalling more than 325 days between July 2020 and April 2022—to substantiate its claim that Walgreens committed seven state law violations. The charges are now with the Vermont Board of Pharmacy, which the state’s prosecuting attorney has asked to “revoke, suspend, reprimand, condition or otherwise discipline” Walgreens’ 32 sites in Vermont, which make up one-quarter of all pharmacies in the state. “(Walgreens) introduced and enforced policies, practices and procedures related to the provision of pharmacy services that resulted in deviation from safe practice,” the state said in the charging document. “(Walgreens) failed to identify and resolve conditions that interfere with a pharmacist’s ability to practice with competence and safety or create an environment that jeopardizes patient care.” Read: Walgreens launches clinical trial business The unscheduled store closures—which were due largely to staffing shortages—left “thousands of patients without access to prescription medications,” according to the document. Some of these patients suffered from serious conditions such as heart and thyroid issues, and went without their prescription medications for “periods of time.” In many instances, Walgreens did not notify patients in advance about store closures nor give guidance on how to get their medications while the store was closed. In the meantime, Walgreens’ computer system continued to process and bill prescriptions to patients’ insurance providers, even when stores were closed and the medications could not be picked up. To complicate matters further, when patients tried to get their prescriptions filled at a pharmacy other than Walgreens, their claims were denied because Walgreens had already processed their prescriptions. The only way they could get their medications was if they paid out-of-pocket or if Walgreens reversed the billing for prescriptions that could not be picked up because the store was closed. Read: Staffing shortages force London Drugs pharmacies to shorten hours But according to the state document, Walgreens staff did not get trained on billing reversal until February 2022. The state also alleged that Walgreens continued to schedule vaccine appointments in Vermont through an online booking system, even when staffing levels could not accommodate these appointments. Staff had no way to disable the scheduling system. At one store, a former Walgreens pharmacist told state investigators that the online vaccine scheduler was booking appointments five minutes apart. The pharmacist recounted a day when there were about 200 prescriptions to fill and 80 vaccines to administer, in addition to other pharmacist duties. For this particular day, this pharmacist had the help of only one pharmacy technician for eight hours. The pharmacist called a Walgreens district manager to discuss the onerous workload but was told to “figure it out,” according to the state document. Read: CVS Health to give pharmacists dedicated lunch break The district manager also rejected the pharmacist’s suggestion to cancel some vaccine appointments—stating that it was not allowed—but did not offer any assistance. The pharmacist quit in October 2021, citing unsafe working conditions. In one week alone, according to the document, there were two errors at this pharmacy including the administration of a Pfizer booster shot to a patient who had come in for a regular flu shot. At another pharmacy, an employee told state investigators that the untenable workload led to mistakes such as administering two vaccinations from empty vials. “Unprofessional conduct” also occurred at multiple Walgreens locations in Vermont between 2020 and 2022, according to the document. Some locations also violated state requirements by operating at times without a designated pharmacy manager. Vermont changed its laws in 2021 to allow the state to pursue disciplinary actions against a drug retail chain deemed to have policies that cause unsafe practices. The charges against Walgreens represent the first application of the law. Read: U.S. allows pharmacists to prescribe Pfizer's COVID pill

'Suspend, revoke, reprimand, condition or otherwise discipline': Walgreens charged with multiple state-wide violations in Vermont

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