by Guy Page
The Vermont Board of Pharmacy has approved a $275,000 fine as part of a settlement between the Secretary of State’s Office of Professional Regulation (OPR) and Walgreens, the national pharmacy chain and Vermont’s largest chain pharmacy. The fine follows a myriad of Covid-era complaints, an 18-month investigation, and prosecution regarding the corporation’s practices across the chain’s Vermont locations, the Secretary of State’s office reported Wednesday, Jan. 24.
Charges were initially filed in June 2022 in response to 70 complaints regarding unsafe conditions across Walgreens’ 32 Vermont locations. OPR investigators, visiting every one of the corporation’s pharmacies in the state, documented untenable working conditions for pharmacists, medication and vaccination errors, controlled substance storage violations, and a trend of unexpected store closures without notice, the office said.
“Our Office’s primary responsibility is to ensure that the public’s health, safety, and welfare are protected,” said Kevin A. Rushing, Director of OPR. “Our goal in this case was not necessarily punitive, but remedial. This settlement is a strong consequence of Walgreens’ business practices, and it codifies remedial measures taken by Walgreens Corporation in response to the investigation. Those measures ensure the needs of their staff are met and Vermonters are protected.”
According to a July, 2022 Vermont Daily Chronicle news report, OPR investigators found a drug store chain trying to cope with severe Covid-era understaffing and additional responsibilities of Covid testing and vaccination.
- A substantial cause of reported patient safety issues at Vermont Walgreens locations was insufficient staffing for the pharmacy workload, which includes filling prescriptions, verifications, patient consultations, administering vaccinations, and conducting Covid tests.
- An online vaccine scheduler which enabling patients to schedule vaccine appointments scheduled appointments “without regard for or consideration of available staffing.”
- Lack of adequate pharmacy staff resulted in over three hundred and twenty-five days in which unexpected and unscheduled retail pharmacy closures occurred throughout the State between July 2020 and April 2022, leaving thousands of patients without access to prescription medications.
- In mid-July of 2020, staffing shortages were especially widespread and acute, causing unscheduled pharmacy closures in Bennington, Brandon, Hardwick, Lyndonivlle, West Rutland, Morrisville, and Burlington.
- On Wednesday, May 12, 2021, when a re-assigned pharmacist arrived to work for three days at the Brattleboro store, the pharmacy was in a state of significant disorganization, with prescription vials and pills on the floor, two unlabeled vials on shelves with a variety of pills in them, cluttered counter space and generally unclean conditions.
Several paragraphs from a Vermont Secretary of State press release were included in this news report.