Medicine Mistakes At Your Pharmacy

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2015/07/01/medicine-mistakes-at-your-pharmacy/#.VZWPmWknfLg.blogger

NORTH TEXAS (CBS 11 NEWS) – A 10-year-old suffered a narcotics “intoxication” after she was given methadone rather than methlyn to treat attention deficit disorder at a North Texas Brookshire pharmacy.

A six-month old began “vomiting” after getting a far too powerful dose of acid reflux medicine from a Walgreens in Mansfield.

And after visiting Lake Worth Pharmacy in Fort Worth, a customer was hospitalized for taking “fives times the amount of insulin” according to the state board order.

The I-Team has learned the Texas State Board of Pharmacy has disciplined 34 Texas pharmacists in the last nine months for complaints like these.

“If I had taken the diabetes medicine instead of my cholesterol medicine, bad things could have happened,” says Bennett Cunningham.

When the I-Team first spoke to Cunningham, a former CBS 11 employee, a Dallas CVS pharmacy had followed workers compensation medication dispensing protocols and given him blue, round pills used to treat diabetes, even though Cunningham’s cholesterol medicine is tan and oval-shaped.

“I was a squeaky wheel.” Cunningham had filed a complaint with the board.

“You have pharmacists dealing out drugs. If you’re not careful, you get the wrong drug, you die.”

The I-Team has now learned the state board disciplined the pharmacist in Cunningham’s case earlier this year, ordering him to make change “to improve his practice,” take continuing education courses, and pay a fine. The Board also fined the Dallas CVS pharmacy $500.

“It’s nice the state did something.” But Cunningham questions how long it all took.

“This took almost a year-and-a-half and the pharmacist was supposedly moved, probably to another pharmacy. He was probably still working. “CVS still had whatever system they had in place and could have been making more errors.”

A spokesperson with the Texas State Board of Pharmacy tells us the disciplining process can take months. He says it takes time to investigate the cases. And, he says, the board only meets to discuss the cases four times a year.

State records show this errors are being made at some big name pharmacies around DFW. In the last few months, pharmacists at Tom Thumb, Kroger, Target, and Walgreens have also been disciplined for mistakes made with patients anywhere from 93-years-old to three-months old.

Cunningham says it won’t happen to him again. “I’ve got two kids. I’m checking their medicine and my medicine. You know once bitten, twice shy.”

Like Cunningham, the state records show many people got the wrong pill. One got the wrong bag. But for most customers, it was the wrong amount.

An 11-month old was rushed to urgent care after getting a prescription from a pharmacy in Haltom city. His parents gave him 3.75 milliliters of cough syrup rather than point .75 milliliters, three times a day.

CVS sent us the following statement responding to our story and Cunningham’s case:

“As we informed your station when it reported on this same incident back in January 2014, the health and safety of our customers is our number one priority and we have comprehensive policies and procedures in place to ensure prescription safety. Prescription errors are a very rare occurrence, but if one does happen we fully investigate the incident to determine what happened in order to prevent it from occurring again. We are committed to ensuring that prescriptions are dispensed safely and accurately to our patients and the parties are in full compliance with the board of pharmacy’s remedial plan.”

A Walgreens spokesperson sent us the following statement:

“We take cases like these very seriously. In the event there is an error with a prescription, our first concern is for the patient’s well-being. We have a multi-step prescription filling process with numerous safety checks in each step to reduce the chance of human error. We encourage patients to check with our pharmacists or their health care provider if they have a question or concern about their medications.”

The I-Team also spoke to the owner of Lake Worth Pharmacy where a patient reported a problem with the amount the insulin he received. The owner says the patient later accepted responsibility for confusion in the case involving his pharmacist.

So how can you keep your family safe?

1. Make sure you have a consultation with your pharmacists before you leave the pharmacy. Ask the pharmacists to look at the drug and the dosage before you walk out.
2. All prescriptions have inserts which describe the medication. Make sure you look at that information. Compare the shape, size, markings, and color of the medicine before you take it.

Filed under: General Problems | 1 Comment »

Walgreen settles Medicaid false billing case in New York

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/29/walgreenboots-settlement-medicaid-fraud-idUSL2N0ZF19620150629

Walgreen Cо wіll pay $2.55 million tо settle charges bу New York’s attorney general thаt a pharmacy unit improperly billed Medicaid fоr costly drugs tо treat hemophilia patients, wіthоut proof thаt іt actually delivered thе drugs tо thоѕе patients.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman оn Monday said hіѕ audit оf Medicaid billings bу Trinity HomeCare LLC fоund improper conduct аnd false billings frоm 2007 tо Sept. 2011.
You will get the more info here if you are stuck in any case and if you ness probation violation attorney. Criminal defense lawyers ѕоmеtіmе gеt a not-so-flattering portrayal bесаuѕе people assume thаt thеу defend guilty people. Hоwеvеr, іf уоu аrе a defendant іn a criminal proceeding, уоu need thе assistance оf a qualified criminal defense lawyer, regardless оf уоur guilt оr innocence. Aѕ thе protectors аnd advocates оf thе accused, defense lawyers play a pivotal role іn thе United States justice ѕуѕtеm tо ѕее thаt еvеrуоnе charged wіth a criminal act hаѕ аn opportunity tо defend thеmѕеlvеѕ. Simply get redirected here for the best criminal defense attorney.

Hе said thеѕе related tо еіght patients іn New York City аnd оnе оn Lоng Island, аnd included оnе instance whеrе drugs wеrе simply left fоr a patient іn thе hallway оf аn apartment building.

Thе case wаѕ originally brought bу a fоrmеr Trinity employee whо accused thе pharmacy оf pushing infusion drugs tо manage hemophilia symptoms, аnd billing Medicaid fоr excess quantities.

Hemophilia іѕ a disorder thаt slows blood clotting, аnd саn result іn excessive bleeding аftеr аn injury. It hаѕ nо cure.

“Pharmacies thаt deliver drugs tо Medicaid patients muѕt document thаt thе patient received thаt medication-and іn thе right amount,” Schneiderman said іn a statement.

Walgreen іѕ раrt оf Walgreens Boots Alliance Inс, аnd thіѕ year sold a majority stake іn Trinity’s parent Walgreens Infusion Services tо private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners. Thаt business іѕ nоw known аѕ Option Care.

Michael Polzin, a Walgreen spokesman, said thе Deerfield, Illinois-based company settled tо avoid thе delay, expense аnd uncertainty оf litigation, аnd did nоt admit liability. (Reporting bу Jonathan Stempel іn New York; Editing bу Andrew Hay)

Filed under: General Problems | Leave a Comment »

Woman sues Walmart, Spotsylvania deputy, after wrongful arrest

http://www.14news.com/story/29434143/walmart-arrest-suit?clienttype=generic

SPOTSYLVANIA, VA (WWBT) –

It was a crushing blow to Eve Davis’ entire life. Davis says she was wrongfully arrested nearly two years ago when she went to have her Adderall prescription filled at Walmart in Spotsylvania County.

“When I am back after 10 minutes [to pick up my prescription], there was a cop there that arrested me. They believed that the prescription was fraud, because there was another prescription that had been filled prior to that,” Davis said. “I was in jail for 16 days and I have a daughter that I wasn’t able to see or get in touch with, and I lost my job… I had two jobs, and I lost both of them.”

Even though a circuit court judge found there was no probable cause for her arrest and her record was expunged, the entire ordeal is having a lasting impact.

“To this day, I’m still trying to find full-time employment. But it’s hard when you Google me and you can see it online, that I was arrested for a felony,” Davis said.

She was a government contractor who lost her top security clearance after her arrest. Now years later, she’s fighting back. A 27-page complaint was filed by her attorney on Monday, seeking damages in the amount of $15 million.

I spoke with her attorney, Jonathan Halperin.

“There needs to be policies and procedures that are followed by these retailers, so they don’t take their own customers and unnecessarily subject them to jail,” he said.

Davis is hoping to finally get peace of mind, because the meaningful things she lost during that time in her life are gone forever.

“I’ll never get what I had before back, or the time that I missed with my daughter… and it has affected her, too. She has lost friends. We have lost a lot.”

Filed under: General Problems | 1 Comment »

Legalizing Medical Marijuana May Lead To Fewer Suicides

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/04/marijuana-legalization-suicide_n_4726390.html

We have 40,000 people commit suicide annually, not counting all those that are labeled as a “accidental over dose” which were actually a suicide. As a society, we are in denial of mental health issues  involved with drug abuse.  This study suggests that by legalizing/decriminalizing MJ/MMJ there is the potential of saving 10-15 lives a day from suicide. The bureaucracy’s persistence on a mindset fostered by bigotry and racism over 100 yrs ago to continue to prohibit medical research on this product. So is our bureaucracy contributing to suicides because of its policies ?

A team of economists’ newly published report in the American Journal of Public Health suggests states that have legalized medical marijuana may see a reduction in suicide rates in young men.

The researchers took a close look at state-level suicide data over a 17-year period, from 1990 to 2007, from the National Vital Statistics System’s mortality detail files. They analyzed data from the 12 states that had legalized medical marijuana during that time and compared it with states that continued to criminalize the drug. In states that had legalized marijuana for medical use, there was a 10.8 percent reduction in the suicide rate of men in their 20s and a 9.4 percent reduction in men in their 30s, the study found.

“The negative relationship between legalization and suicides among young men is consistent with the hypothesis that marijuana can be used to cope with stressful life events,” the authors wrote. “However, this relationship may be explained by alcohol consumption. The mechanism through which legalizing medical marijuana reduces suicides among young men remains a topic for future study.”

Daniel Rees, co-author of the study, noted to The Huffington Post that although researchers couldn’t distinguish between alcohol or marijuana use in this study, another recent study also co-authored by Rees, a 2013 study he co-authored published by Chicago Journals, does show a link between medical marijuana use and a reduction of alcohol use among young adults.

The effect on males was clear, but the study did not find conclusive evidence that medical marijuana legalization reduced suicides among females.

“The estimates for females were less precise and sensitive to model specification,” Rees said. “In other words, legalization may reduce suicides among females, but we didn’t find conclusive evidence one way or the other. Females could respond to marijuana differently than males. Females could respond to alcohol differently than males. It’s even possible that they respond to legalization differently than males.”

Currently, 20 states, along with the District of Columbia, have medical marijuana or recreational marijuana laws. More than a dozen others are likely to legalize marijuana in the next several years.

Filed under: General Problems | Leave a Comment »

Detroit EMT Fired After Refusing to Perform CPR on 8-Month-Old Girl

http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/06/27/detroit-emt-fired-refusing-perfom-cpr-8-month-old-baby-girl

So here we have a licensed healthcare professionals refusing to provide care…  Be interesting to see if the licensing board suspends/revokes her license, if some sort of criminal charges are filed and the always possible civil lawsuit against the EMT and the city.. I can sense the attorneys CIRCLING !

A Detroit EMT has been fired after refusing to help a baby suffering a medical emergency. 

WDIV reported that Ann Marie Thomas received a call on May 30 that an 8-month-old girl had stopped breathing.

Instead of rushing to help save the infant’s life, Thomas parked the vehicle around the corner from the home. She waited six minutes before telling dispatchers that she didn’t want to help, according to an internal investigations report. 

“I’m not about to be on no scene 10 minutes doing CPR, you know how these families get,” Thomas reportedly told her supervisor.

The infant, who was born premature and used an oxygen machine, was eventually transported to Sinai-Grace Hospital by a different ambulance. She died the next morning. 

“The actions of EMT Thomas directly contributed to an approximately 19 minute response time (from time of call to Romeo 33 making the scene) for a baby not breathing,” the report said. 

Detroit Fire Commissioner Edsel Jenkins stated that firing Thomas was the “appropriate course of action” after reviewing all of the facts surrounding the incident.   

Filed under: General Problems | 2 Comments »

Pain doctor in Kentucky charged in 5 deaths

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/01/21/pain-doctor-charged-in-5-deaths-in-ky/22134745/

Barb saw this particular pain doc for a couple years. I was a lot more impressed by this particular doc’s pt care than the doc that owned the clinic nor the doc that replaced him… shortly afterwards Barb left the clinic’s practice.  Dealing with chronic pain pts that are suffering from pain, depression, anxiety and other issues… are at a twice the risk of committing suicide.  SOOOO.. 5 pts committed suicide over a several year period.. in this country we have 40,000 commit suicide every year..  IT HAPPENS..

The fraudulent billing is nothing but “fluff charges”… the report is that Jamie was headed off to some sort of conference/seminar/medical convention and was rushing to make sure that all his pts had their needed medication.. and there was some sort of mis-communication to the individual/company that did the billing for the practice.  Fraudulent billing practices tend to be more routine and ongoing for more than THREE DAYS.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A pain doctor who promises on his website to help patients “return to a life they once knew” has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of illegally prescribing medications that resulted in the deaths of five patients.

Dr. Jaime Guerrero, who has offices in Louisville and Jeffersonville, Ind., was charged in a 32-count indictment with causing the deaths by issuing prescriptions for oxycodone, methadone and hydrocodone for no medical purpose from 2009 through 2012.

He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

Acting U.S. Attorney John E. Kuhn Jr. said in a statement that “physicians who recklessly prescribe narcotics must be held accountable, and where investigators and prosecutors believe they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that medically unnecessary narcotics caused a patient death, we will pursue those cases criminally.”

Dan Smoot, chief executive of Operation Unite, an Eastern Kentucky anti-drug organization, said the indictment “sends a message to doctors who … prescribe painkillers without a medical purpose that they are little different than drug traffickers.”

Guerrero didn’t respond to messages left at both of his offices or at his home, or to e-mails. But his attorney, Scott C. Cox, said: “I have known Dr. Guerrero for many years and I have known him to be a legitimate physician in every respect. He is board certified and has been a conscientious physician for many years, and we look forward to defending him.”

Guerrero, 47, who has operated a practice called Advanced Pain Management Center, also was charged with health care fraud after being accused of seeing more than 100 patients on three days in 2011, spending about three minutes with each one and billing for office visits at a higher rate than the service allowed. He also is accused of directing a staff member who isn’t licensed as a counselor to provide drug-education classes to patients.

Guerrero, who graduated from St. Xavier High School and Centre College, is a 1993 graduate of the University of Louisville medical school who did his residency in anesthesiology at U of L. He is licensed in good standing in Indiana and Kentucky.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration searched his offices at 1170 E. Broadway in Louisville and 1101 Spring St. in Jeffersonville in September 2012, confiscating his records.

One of his patients, Lee Bullock, told WAVE-TV then that Guerrero was treating him for degenerative disc disease and that he thought he was a very good doctor. “He monitors all his patients very close,” he told the station. “He does a lot of drug screens, urine test and pill counts.”

Filed under: General Problems | 1 Comment »

Filed under: General Problems | 2 Comments »

Woman arrested in KY for stealing from nursing home patient

Filed under: General Problems | 6 Comments »

There is some 320 million people in the US… among those there are abt 40 million blacks/African Americans .. someone discriminates against one of them.. this is what you may see in the media

There are some 12 million that label themselves as part of the LGTB community and if you discriminate against one or more of them and this is what you may see in the media

There is an estimated 106 million of those suffering for chronic pain and other subjective chronic diseases.. and if discrimination against people in this group.. and this is what you may see in the media

This is the closest that this group gets to protesting… A SIT IN.. I know that you can’t read the PICKET SIGNS.. but.. that is OK…  the picture itself clearly demonstrates the intensity of the commitment of those present in getting this discrimination to come to a end

Filed under: General Problems | 8 Comments »

As advocate for industrial hemp production, Kentucky’s Thomas Massie standing tall

http://www.nkytribune.com/2015/06/as-advocate-for-industrial-hemp-production-kentuckys-thomas-massie-standing-tall/

If there is anyone from Kentucky who is a bigger industrial hemp advocate than Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, it is likely U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, who stood beside Comer when state legislation was being passed to allow an administrative framework be set up.

Massie, a Republican who represents the 4th District stretching across Northern Kentucky, has been leading the charge at the federal level. Recently, he joined a host of others in co-sponsoring an amendment that would keep the federal government from using taxpayers’ dollars to hinder research production efforts.

Earlier this year, Massie introduced the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015 (HR525), which would amend the Controlled Substances Act to remove industrial hemp from the list of controlled substances.

And it was an amendment he sponsored in the 2014 Farm Bill that granted states research rights when it came to cultivating industrial hemp.

This latest legislation was a part of the Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill, which funds many government agencies, including the Department of Justice and the Department of Commerce. It is the result of the situation that arose in 2014 when the federal government held up hemp seed delivery to Kentucky’s waiting research projects.

“Their seeds were confiscated by an overzealous DEA, that is turning a blind eye to marijuana in Colorado and Washington State, but the DEA saw fit to come to Kentucky and harass our state department of agriculture that had non-psychoactive hemp seeds,” Massie said.

It took a lawsuit on behalf of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture and this same legislative amendment introduced by Massie to get those seeds released.

That amendment became law as part of the Omnibus Bill which means it remains in affect until Sept. 30, when the bill expires.

“Whenever you amend an appropriations bill to achieve a desired effect, it doesn’t become permanent law, it only lasts for the length of the appropriation, which is one fiscal year,” said Massie. “That’s why I reintroduced this amendment so this fiscal restraint on the DEA will also be in place in the 2016 fiscal year. And this time it passed by an even larger majority than last year.”

He sees this as growing support from Congress to allow industrial hemp to once again become a production agriculture crop.

“Just about every week I get a new co-sponsor for HR525 and that’s one of the reasons these amendment votes are important. They show a level of support for industrial hemp in Congress that keeps growing,” said Massie.

He added that these vote totals will show leadership and committee chairs the will of the House is to allow the growing of industrial hemp and therefore HR525 should be passed out of committee and allowed a vote on the floor.

One positive move that happened this year with the amendment that did not happen in 2014 is the support from the chair of the Judiciary Committee, the committee of jurisdiction for HR525.

Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia) chairs that committee and in his home state, hemp research legislation passed in 2014 by a nearly unanimous vote.

“What’s happening here to motivate federal legislators is that the state legislatures are passing industrial hemp initiatives in their own states,” Massie said.

From an agricultural standpoint, hemp is thought by many to be a viable replacement for tobacco in Kentucky.
Massie, who raises cattle on a former tobacco farm, said he is acutely aware of the need to find a replacement crop even though it may not be on a one-for-one basis.

But there are some sectors within the hemp industry that hold promise from a financial standpoint including its use in pharmaceuticals.

“The majority of the venture capital that’s starting to come into the hemp field is focused on pharmaceutical applications not for THC but for CBD (cannabidiol) oils,” said Massie.

Cannabinoids are extracts derived from industrial hemp that are often used in medical research.

David Williams, UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment agronomist and co-project lead for the university’s hemp research said some of that cannabinoid research, which until now has been conducted indoors, is going outdoors in fieldscape production at UK, something that may hold the key to it being a potential replacement crop for tobacco producers.

“I’ll underline and bold that word ‘potential,’” said Williams cautiously. “If a tobacco production model yielded more cannabinoids than a direct-seeding model, it could be a ‘potentially’ wonder thing for Central Kentucky farmers to have a ‘potential’ alternative crop that might be just as profitable as tobacco used to be.”

The House passed the CJS appropriations bill by a vote of 242-183. The legislation will now need Senate passage before going to the president.

Filed under: General Problems | 1 Comment »