An Iowa pharmacy with a history of serious regulatory violations has had its license fully reinstated by the state.
In 2021, the Iowa Board of Pharmacy charged the CVS Pharmacy at 3419 16th Ave. SW in Cedar Rapids with six separate regulatory violations, including failure to ensure the legal operation of a pharmacy, medication dispensing errors, failure to keep an orderly and clean business, failure to have a continuous quality improvement program in place, failure to comply with rules governing the pharmacist in charge, and failure to maintain effective controls in place to discourage the diversion of drugs.
According to the board, the pharmacy was inspected in July 2020, which resulted in findings that the business was “disorganized, dirty and not a conducive environment to providing quality care.”
Expired medications were allegedly found on the shelves and multiple bottles were shelved incorrectly, the board alleged. The pharmacy was also accused of lacking training records for technicians and support workers, failing to complete the required inventories of pharmaceuticals, and sustaining “significant losses of controlled substances” that were attributed to theft by employees.
In May 2021, the board fined the pharmacy $6,500 and placed its license on probation for three years, until May 2024. At the time, the board indicated the pharmacy could seek early termination of probation after two years.
The board recently agreed to the pharmacy’s request for early termination of the probationary period, finding that the business had successfully completed the terms and conditions of the probation. The pharmacy’s license is now returned to full privileges, free and clear of all restrictions.
Other pharmacy board actions
Other individuals and businesses whose disciplinary cases resulted in recent action by the board include:
Certified pharmacy technician Sadie Louise Lehmkuhl of Marion, who was charged with diverting prescription drugs from a pharmacy for her personal use or for distribution to others. According to the board, Lehmkuhl admitted diverting four separate 10-milliliter vials of ketamine — an anesthetic that has some hallucinogenic effects — for personal use while working at a location the board has not disclosed.
The board alleges Lehmkuhl admitted she committed the theft by “manually decreasing” the pharmacy’s computerized inventory of ketamine by 40 milliliters. In order to resolve the disciplinary case, Lehmkuhl and the board agreed to a settlement that resulted in Lehmkuhl receiving a formal warning from the board. She is also required to participate in the Iowa Monitoring Program for Pharmacy Professionals.
Clark’s Pharmacy of Cedar Rapids, which was fined $1,000 after the board alleged the business, located at 1946 42nd St., had for 16 months employed a pharmacy technician who was not registered with the state. In what appears to be a related case, the board fined Jone Poppe of Central City $100 for working as an unregistered pharmacy technician during the same 16-month period referenced in the Clark’s Pharmacy case.
Stangel Pharmacy of Onawa, which was fined $5,000 by the board and had its license placed on probation for one year for having failed to conduct a background check into a delivery driver implicated in a series of thefts and burglaries that arose from her employment with the pharmacy.
The pharmacy must also submit to the board copies of policies and procedures pertaining to employee background checks and must complete “quarterly self-inspections” and submit to the board the findings of those self-inspections.
Separately, the owner of Stangel Pharmacy, Aaron Stangel, was recently issued a warning by the board due to the same set of issues involving the delivery driver.
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August 29, 2023 at 01:19AM
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Iowa pharmacy once plagued by employee theft completes probation - Iowa Capital Dispatch
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