Walgreens had someone working as pharmacist who wasn't

[Sarah'sMomfrom PA]

I didn't believe my daughter when she told me this (My DD is a pharmacist with her doctorate) but apparently Walgreen's had a woman who worked for over 11 years as a pharmacist and filled over 750,000 prescriptions in California and she never even finished pharmacy school--they must have never asked her to produce her pharmacy license (my daughter is at CVS and has to have her license on display and randomly, she must scan said license to CVS corporate.) Let's at least hope that she was good at what she did or else a lot of lives could have been put at risk!

 

[Malyficent]

We've had enough issues with that particular chain that we no longer do prescriptions there. They bought a local chain and everything went downhill. Even my regular pharmacist there left (we have kids the same age and tend to bump into each other so I asked what was up with all the issues and she said they're a mess).

 

[Sarah'sMomfrom PA]

The scary thing is that this woman could have killed someone with a mis-fill. What amazed me and caused me not to believe her is that this occurred for over 11 years...wouldn't you think that in that 11 years, someone from their corporate office would have pulled an audit and this woman would have been exposed. She was making the money as a pharmacist (and if I remember correctly, my daughter said that she was even a pharmacy manager at one of the stores) and no one including her pharmacy supervisor even questioned her or asked to see her license. My daughter takes pride in her license and her many years of study and hard work and always carries her license when she arrives for work (plus it is on display for anyone who would like to see it)

 

[sjrec]

Something was missed when she was hired-no one followed up on her application? Just awful. We have a friend that worked for them and took early retirement because they were so disorganized at his store. And corporate didn’t care.

 

[powellrj]

Something like that happened here except it wasn’t 11 years and she was arrested. I don’t remember the details because it’s been a few years.

 

[dotfurio]

That's crazy!! Does no one audit pharmacies? When I was at a radiology clinic we had to have our current licenses displayed and when the facility was periodically inspected it was one of the things they checked.

 

[low-key]

Im strangely alright with this

 

[starry_solo]

Not sure how old the woman was, but way back in the day, you didn't have to go to pharmacy school to be a pharmacist. You could get a Bachelor's in Pharmacy and take the exams, etc.

 

[bcla]

Not sure how old the woman was, but way back in the day, you didn't have to go to pharmacy school to be a pharmacist. You could get a Bachelor's in Pharmacy and take the exams, etc.

I believe technically that would still be a pharmacy school. Apparently what's now the UCSF School of Pharmacy pioneered masters and doctorate level pharmacy education.

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/uchistory/general_history/campuses/ucsf/colleges.html#pharmacy
During and after the 1930's, the school pioneered in upgrading pharmaceutical education from a four-year to a five-year and finally to a six-year program. In 1937, the school initiated graduate instruction leading to the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in pharmaceutical chemistry.​

I remember talking to a medical student from Australia who said they used to have more or less an undergraduate medical program, or at least the equivalent of a combination undergraduate and master's degree program for 5-6 years. They call it the Bachelor of Medicine / Bachelor of Surgery degree. I had a doctor who came from a 4-year foreign medical college that wasn't like the US. But apparently there are some programs in Australia that are instituting a separate doctorate-level medical school program.

I certainly understand that this looks bad, but I was under the impression that most of what pharmacists really know was learned on the job. She was legally a pharmacy technician and worked under pharmacists all day for years before claiming to have a pharmacy degree. Certainly a lot of what pharmacists do these days is look up prescribing information along with possible interactions. I could imagine someone pulling this off given enough experience. I'm not saying it's right, but I thought most of what a pharmacist does is oversee the work of technicians.

If you read the articles, she gave the license number of licensed pharmacists with similar names. So they might have checked the database but didn't ask for a license.

 

[starry_solo]

I believe technically that would still be a pharmacy school. Apparently what's now the UCSF School of Pharmacy pioneered masters and doctorate level pharmacy education.

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/uchistory/general_history/campuses/ucsf/colleges.html#pharmacy
During and after the 1930's, the school pioneered in upgrading pharmaceutical education from a four-year to a five-year and finally to a six-year program. In 1937, the school initiated graduate instruction leading to the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in pharmaceutical chemistry.​

I remember talking to a medical student from Australia who said they used to have more or less an undergraduate medical program, or at least the equivalent of a combination undergraduate and master's degree program for 5-6 years. They call it the Bachelor of Medicine / Bachelor of Surgery degree. I had a doctor who came from a 4-year foreign medical college that wasn't like the US. But apparently there are some programs in Australia that are instituting a separate doctorate-level medical school program.

I certainly understand that this looks bad, but I was under the impression that most of what pharmacists really know was learned on the job. She was legally a pharmacy technician and worked under pharmacists all day for years before claiming to have a pharmacy degree. Certainly a lot of what pharmacists do these days is look up prescribing information along with possible interactions. I could imagine someone pulling this off given enough experience. I'm not saying it's right, but I thought most of what a pharmacist does is oversee the work of technicians.

If you read the articles, she gave the license number of licensed pharmacists with similar names. So they might have checked the database but didn't ask for a license.

Now you have me curious to go read it....friend is a pharmacist, has her license on display in her pharmacy and has a pocket version in her wallet.

 

[starry_solo]

Found the article (and a video too):

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crim...years-hands-out-750k-prescriptions/ar-BBSZ8yX

 

[bcla]

Now you have me curious to go read it....friend is a pharmacist, has her license on display in her pharmacy and has a pocket version in her wallet.

I know someone who has a California CPA license. Apparently had two pieces of paper including one business license sized piece of paper and another piece the same size but with instructions to cut it with scissors for placing in a wallet. I believe this is pretty standard for various licenses issued by the state of California.

Heck - I remember a childhood dentist who had copies of all his degrees on the wall in one patient room. BS in Chemistry from UC Berkeley. Doctor of Pharmacy from UC Berkeley (discontinued in the 1960s I believe), and Doctor of Dental Surgery from UC San Francisco.

 

[starry_solo]

I know someone who has a California CPA license. Apparently had two pieces of paper including one business license sized piece of paper and another piece the same size but with instructions to cut it with scissors for placing in a wallet. I believe this is pretty standard for various licenses issued by the state of California.

Heck - I remember a childhood dentist who had copies of all his degrees on the wall in one patient room. BS in Chemistry from UC Berkeley. Doctor of Pharmacy from UC Berkeley (discontinued in the 1960s I believe), and Doctor of Dental Surgery from UC San Francisco.

I have a professional license from CA but apparently my organization is too cheap to send us the hard plastic cards in the mail anymore....although we can download it online, lol....yeah, I don't go through that effort

 

[pampam]

The pharmacy I was using made a mistake on DDs meds and she ended up in the hospital with heart failure. In the meantime, the pharmacy had a fire and couldn't check the records of how they had filled the prescription . DD is fine, but so much for that pharmacy.

 

[RangerPooh]

During questioning, Le told the Board “me and my son would be very grateful if you could just forget about this.”
I have a problem with this. No, the board cannot just forget it!

I have a number of friends who are pharmacists and they have to have licenses on display for the state that they work and any others readily that they are certified in that they distribute prescriptions to. One friend is licensed in 24 states because that's how many states the company that she works for distributes medication to. Each one is renewed annually and there are education credits that she earns too.

Licensing is taken seriously and checked before employment to verify that you are able to do the job. So what the heck happened here?!? I'm not buying this story.

 

[GreatLakes]

Things get missed during the application but I can't believe she survived 11 years and there was no audit that uncovered it. I'm in a totally different industry and our audits are pretty throughout for those that require an accreditation. Our yearly audits actually check the credentials of anyone director level or above to ensure any degree or certification that is claimed is accurate and not expired and we couldn't accidentally kill anyone.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Things get missed during the application but I can't believe she survived 11 years and there was no audit that uncovered it. I'm in a totally different industry and our audits are pretty throughout for those that require an accreditation. Our yearly audits actually check the credentials of anyone director level or above to ensure any degree or certification that is claimed is accurate and not expired and we couldn't accidentally kill anyone.

It said in the article that she provided a licence that belonged to someone with a name very similar to hers. I can see how she slipped through the cracks because Walgreens thought the one she provided belonged to her.

 

[GreatLakes]

It said in the article that she provided a licence that belonged to someone with a name very similar to hers. I can see how she slipped through the cracks because Walgreens thought the one she provided belonged to her.

Did they just look at the piece of paper or call the institution that awarded it and verify the identity? For us they called my college and confirmed that I (my SSN, Full Name, Full Address, etc) have the degree I claimed I had. They didn't just look at the diploma and think "good enough".

I'm just surprised it wasn't more thorough than it appears they did. Audits are supposed to look closely and deeply, not skim information to just check off a box.

 

[DVC-Don]

Sounds like "Suits".

 

[superme80]

My cousin and her husband are both pharmacist. They went through a lot of schooling to get where they are. Both would be livid at this!