50,000 painkillers missing - janitor blamed

[underpants]

This place is a staple of Western Henrico county. This story has been re-written since I saw it this afternoon. The local TV station is clearly spinning this for the pharmacy.

BTW - I have learned just today that this pharmacy was known to give pain meds to older patients who couldn't afford or needed more. This has been going on, I am told, for decades.


VA Board: 50,000+ painkiller pills stolen from Westbury Pharmacy

http://www.nbc12.com/story/28830190/westbury-pharmacy-shut-down-by-state-board

HENRICO, VA (WWBT) -
The State Board of Pharmacy confirms it shut down Westbury Pharmacy on Friday due in part to the theft of more than 50,000 tablets of controlled drugs like Oxycodone, Methadone and Hydrocodone by an employee.


A statement from the pharmacy tied the closure to a janitor who the store says stole a large amount of pain medications from the pharmacy more than a year ago. The statement says the janitor pleaded guilty and the pharmacy says it has worked to correct a series of issues raised in the board's investigation of the prescription department.

Four surprise inspections in May 2014 and February 2015, along with a May 2014 drug audit raised concerns about "the pharmacy's ability to assure the quality, sterility, integrity, safety and efficacy of drugs dispensed, along with its ability to safeguard against the diversion of drugs," the board wrote.

"These deficiencies included issues with drug storage and security which may have contributed to a loss of over 50,000 tablets of controlled substances; medications in the pharmacy's drug stock that were expired or mislabeled; medications that were unlabeled or without expiration dates; bottles containing medications from two different manufacturers; and bottles with pills in excess of the amount listed on the label," according to the board.

[TeeYiYi]

1. The janitor is just the fall guy...

...I hope he has a good defense.

It seems like the pharmacy's heart was in the right place but it does appear that it got a little out of control.

re: "...pharmacy was known to give pain meds to older patients who couldn't afford or needed more."

TYY

[tammywammy]

2. He pled guilty. n/t

[TeeYiYi]

5. Oops, busted!...

...for not reading the story at the link before commenting.

TYY

[underpants]

3. Janitor is already convicted and serving time

This place is old Richmond complete with lunch counter (great tuna melt). This sort of thing tends to be "cleared up" around here but this goes into DEA territory.

[TeeYiYi]

4. Weird...

50,000 is a lot of painkillers. I wonder if he really was responsible for the whole thing or if he took a plea deal. Innocent people plead guilty all the time.

TYY

[underpants]

6. I doubt it

As I posted before apparently this place was known to "help out" people in need.

Inventory was probably fudged but you can't order those quantities and not have sales/inventory to reconcile this unless management is involved.

[TeeYiYi]

7. Yup...

DEA got their pound of flesh with the janitor. Move along; nothing to see here...

TYY

[hughee99]

8. He was probably responsible for some of them, which is why he pled guilty

and the pharmacy is using the incident to square their books.

[TeeYiYi]

9. Exactly. ..nt

TYY