New Hampshire Pharmacy Error Oversight System is a Bitter Pill to Swallow
New Hampshire's Pharmacy Board has a neat way of protecting their pharmacists from pharmacy error lawsuits – if an error doesn't result in any disciplinary action, they simply don’t record the incident.
As this report reveals, because of this protective system, citizens have no way of telling how many errors a particular pharmacy or pharmacist has scored on their tally. The State Board of Pharmacy only releases records to the public in case there is any disciplinary action taken against the pharmacist in question, for his error. The Board admits it takes this step to protect the pharmacies and pharmacists. The pharmacies may be safe and protected. But who, we wonder, is responsible for protecting citizens? When records are available for public review only in the event of a disciplinary action, then it becomes hard for people to know exactly how many pharmacies have been diligent in following regulations and maintaining safe dispensing practices, and how many have been casually sweeping pharmacy errors under the Board's carpet.
The Board claims that just because not all pharmacy errors come up for disciplinary action doesn't mean that pharmacists are running wild making blatant violations of rules. It insists that there are some violations which would absolutely warrant a Board intervention. These include repeated negligence, drug or alcohol use by an employee, willful misconduct, or repeated violations. So basically, a pharmacist has to make repeated errors for the Board to actually hold him accountable for it.
The extent of protection and privacy that's being afforded to New Hampshire pharmacies and their pharmacists is of concern to citizens' groups who worry about the lack of transparency in the oversight system. If all you can expect in case of an error is that the Board will decide whether to merely let off the pharmacist with an unrecorded warning, or take it to the next level, then it becomes hard to make any assumptions about the safety of your regular pharmacy. As Board members themselves point out, very few of the violations cases actually come up before the Board for action. Last year, inspectors brought exactly five pharmacy error complaints to the Board's notice. The year before that, the number was one.
To have pharmacists receive this level of protection from oversight and corrective measures is shocking to pharmacy error lawyers like me, who have been pushing for greater transparency and accountability in the country's' pharmacy chains. Citizens have the right to know how many pharmacists at exactly which pharmacy have been cited for errors. Ultimately, it's public health and safety we're talking about here, and there needs to be accountability.
