Contacts with other current and former employees of Sam's Club Pharmacy indicate that the following is a common practice, usually done to save the pharmacist the work of contacting the physician and/or insurance company. It is therefore important that customers of Sam's Club and Walmart Pharmacies be careful to check their prescriptions to ensure that the dosage amounts and frequency match their physician's instructions.
1. Tracy Phan (pharmacist) and Sam's Club Pharmacy received, on 6/19/2009, a prescription written by Dr. Calvin Hagglov for Laurie for the blood pressure medication Tekturna at a dosage of 150mg twice daily.
2. On or about 6/22/2009, Ms. Phan or an employee of Sam's Club Pharmacy changed the prescription dosage to 300mg, once daily.
3. Neither Ms. Phan nor any employee of Sam's Club Pharmacy consulted with Dr. Hagglov to obtain authorization for this change.
4. Neither Ms. Phan nor any employee of Sam's Club Pharmacy contacted Laurie's insurance company, Anthem Blue Cross California, to obtain authorization for this change.
5. Neither Ms. Phan nor any employee of Sam's Club Pharmacy informed Laurie of this change.
6. As a result of this change in dosage, and the lack of informed consent, Laurie took twice the prescribed dosage from 6/22/2009 through 9/30/2009. Because Tekturna is a relatively new drug, it is not known what the potential effects might be; however, during this period, Laurie observed a reduction in metabolism, increased fatigue, and depressed mood. Subsequent examination and blood tests so far indicate no lasting damage.
Ms. Phan and Sam's Club Pharmacy have maintained that they contacted both Anthem Blue Cross and Dr. Hagglov's office, though neither office has any record of such contact, and both offices are required by law to maintain records of such contact.
When confronted with this problem on 9/30/2009, Ms. Phan became hostile and belligerent, and attempted to induce Laurie to sign a document that (a) attested to false information, and (b) released Sam's Club Pharmacy and Ms. Phan from any liability. At one point, Ms. Phan told her assistant to "shut up", and attempted to grab a document from Laurie hands in a physically threatening manner.
At best, these incidents indicate a gross disregard for the welfare of a customer. At worst, it is evidence of criminal fraud.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Batman
Massachusetts, United States of America
Food for thought...
#2Consumer Comment
Tue, January 19, 2010
Just some advice...
I don't care what the relationship is between you and Laurie or whether she was sitting next to you telling you exactly what to say as you typed this report, it's not good practice to post someone else's private medical information in a public forum such as this.
There are many ways to get your point across without going into those types of details.
Regarding this accidental/negligent change in dosage. Couple of questions...
1. Did the directions on the bottle indicate that the dosage was 300mg and should only be taken once per day?
If so, though Sam's may have switched the drug like you said, it's Laurie's fault for double dosing and not bothering to read the bottle. You'll have a hard time with that aspect of the complaint and it would be better to leave the focus on why they switched the drug and whether they had/needed proper authorization to do so. You'll never get anything/anywhere if the bottle was properly labled and the directions were clear. Just an FYI. You'll make more progress keeping focus on the change in meds.
2. Why didn't her PCP notice she was going through so much medication?
By your post, Laurie went through 6 months of meds in 3 months. Over those three months, her prescription surely would have run out at some point and a refill would have been needed, especially if she were taking twice as much as the prescribed dose. I don't believe it's common practice to prescribe meds 6 months out and even if this was done, then the refill intervals would be 30 or 60 days. By my math, that means at least one refill was given and it was given months earlier than it should have been scheduled.
They had a script for all the refills, right? I can't imagine they'd give a refill that wasn't scheduled for another 3 months, so I have wonder why the issue wasn't noticed sooner. This could be another fault of Sam's or, it may indicate that her PCP had to authorize a refill at some point and missed the fact she was double dosing. If his office wrote a refill or authorized an early refill, then he should have caught on and questioned why she went through her script so fast.
Maybe you should be looking to bring a complaint against Dr. Hagglov as well. Missing something like that would make him liable, wouldn't it? Heck, not to get all paranoid, but something like that might even justify his office 'forgetting' a call from the pharmacy for authorization. I'd take a hard look at the refill schedule and when they were made.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Batman
Massachusetts,United States of America
Food for thought...
#2Consumer Comment
Tue, January 19, 2010
Just some advice...
I don't care what the relationship is between you and Laurie or whether she was sitting next to you telling you exactly what to say as you typed this report, it's not good practice to post someone else's private medical information in a public forum such as this.
There are many ways to get your point across without going into those types of details.
Regarding this accidental/negligent change in dosage. Couple of questions...
1. Did the directions on the bottle indicate that the dosage was 300mg and should only be taken once per day?
If so, though Sam's may have switched the drug like you said, it's Laurie's fault for double dosing and not bothering to read the bottle. You'll have a hard time with that aspect of the complaint and it would be better to leave the focus on why they switched the drug and whether they had/needed proper authorization to do so. You'll never get anything/anywhere if the bottle was properly labled and the directions were clear. Just an FYI. You'll make more progress keeping focus on the change in meds.
2. Why didn't her PCP notice she was going through so much medication?
By your post, Laurie went through 6 months of meds in 3 months. Over those three months, her prescription surely would have run out at some point and a refill would have been needed, especially if she were taking twice as much as the prescribed dose. I don't believe it's common practice to prescribe meds 6 months out and even if this was done, then the refill intervals would be 30 or 60 days. By my math, that means at least one refill was given and it was given months earlier than it should have been scheduled.
They had a script for all the refills, right? I can't imagine they'd give a refill that wasn't scheduled for another 3 months, so I have wonder why the issue wasn't noticed sooner. This could be another fault of Sam's or, it may indicate that her PCP had to authorize a refill at some point and missed the fact she was double dosing. If his office wrote a refill or authorized an early refill, then he should have caught on and questioned why she went through her script so fast.
Maybe you should be looking to bring a complaint against Dr. Hagglov as well. Missing something like that would make him liable, wouldn't it? Heck, not to get all paranoid, but something like that might even justify his office 'forgetting' a call from the pharmacy for authorization. I'd take a hard look at the refill schedule and when they were made.
Hope it all works out.