PHARMACIST STEVE

The action of this call from the pharmacist to the doctor’s office has spread through my medical records and cannot be erased. I received a notice by letter of mail from the first doctor contacted (by the pharmacist) stating and all future appointments were cancelled and my medications would no longer be refilled and to seek other medical care. I actually had an appointment with this doctor scheduled the following day that I received the letter so I went to the appointment to discuss this with the doctor.

I was informed by the staff that the doctor would not see me anymore and that the RiteAid pharmacy had reported me for purchasing alcohol. (What.) I was totally speechless by this. I then went to the Rite Aid store and requested a consultation at the pharmacy. When the pharmacist entered the room, I told what the staff at the doctors office had told me. To my surprise, the pharmacist then admitted that they were the one that made the phone call but did not realize that the doctor would take this kind of action against me.

I then asked what prompted this and the reply was that it was related to the medicine I was being prescribed. There was no label on this medicine bottle stating (DO NOT consume alcohol or—–). So, I am way more over 21 and alcohol is not an illegal product, so why did this happen? Why does Rite Aid sell alcohol if they are going to use this against you? What if diabetic purchased candy? What if a person using nicotine patches purchased tobacco? Are all of these customers going to be reported to their doctors? I feel this is a severe violation of personal privacy.

In conversation with other people sharing this incident, there was a person that knew a pharmacy tech that worked at this RiteAid pharmacy. This tech asked the pharmacist about this and the reply was that another tech saw me purchase the alcohol and reported it, that was the response back to tech from the pharmacist so I was told. So, is the pharmacist saying they did not actually see me buy the alcohol? Are they acting on another person’s information?

Another RiteAid employee confused about this gave me the contact information of the regional manager. I called this manager and shared this information, I was told that it would be looked into and they would contact me with a follow up. I waited a week and called again only to get their voice mail, then another, then another and so on.

This continued for several weeks. Finally, after weeks a call was answered and I was told that the pharmacist acted with proper procedure. I was not satisfied with this answer so I have written 2 privacy complaints forms to RiteAid at their main office in Harrisburg PA only to get No response back from either complaint letter. Maybe Rite Aid does not want to address this issue or are they ignoring this incident? Maybe the mail is not getting to the correct source.

I am sharing this experience with you because your drug store may not be the best place to purchase certain products even if they are on sale. Someone seeing you, or someone’s hearsay, or in some manner just about everywhere you go you are most likely being watched and it could possibly cause you some inconvenience. Thank you for allowing me to submit this incident. Respectfully submitted.