I can't be arsed doing my job properly - so you can go to jail

[draco664]

Link

A woman on a charity trip to Haiti had an accident and shattered her kneecap. She had surgery in Port-au-Prince without a general. A week later, she got flown back to the US and was prescribed a narcotic pain-killer by her doctor.

A month later, she'd used up her prescription and called a CVS to have it refilled. Instead of filling the prescription, CVS called the police and had her arrested for suspicion of fraudulently filling out the prescription.

Each prescription for narcotics has a DEA number on it unique to each doctor. The pharmacy's prodedure should have been to contact the doctor to validate it. The doctor who wrote the prescription was not contacted by CVS.

So, a woman in pain tries to get pain medication, and because a CVS employee can't be arsed to do his job properly, she gets hauled away by the cops, spends a night in jail, and is charged with a felony without any, you know, investigating being done.

She's suing CVS.

[LexiaFira]

i would too or at least have the employee fired for not following damn procedure.

[LadyBarbossa]

Whoa, that's . . . extreme. Yeah, any pharmacy employee in their right mind calls the Dr. first if they suspect anything fishy. Holy hell, poor lady.

[mikoyan29]

So the cops arrested her on the word of a clerk at CVS? You would think they would have called up her doctor before throwing her in jail.

[HYHYBT]

OK.. so they didn't not cal the doctor. They called the wrong one by mistake. Mistakes will happen in every conceivable system. It seems awfully severe that she was arrested before it was straightened out, but how (other than "never make mistakes" because that's not going to happen) would it be prevented while still arresting those who really do make out their own prescriptions?

[Andara Bledin]

While I can understand the mistake of screwing up the cross reference and contacting the wrong doctor (we are all human, after all), I can't understand why in cases of suspected fraud, they don't appear to have any checks to ensure that the correct information was obtained.

^-.-^

[bara]

Hmm, this should be interesting. Id like to know more of how this happened. As it stands, sounds like not only the CVS but the police department jumped the gun big time.

[Seifer]

You have to wonder how far the pharmacist went to verify the the prescription was legit. Was it just a quick call to the doctor's office? Did they get a "We don't know what you're talking about" answer and immediately call the police? Did they possibly think to check that the number they'd dialed was correct?

I think she has a good case against false imprisonment. She had to be detained overnight because someone else screwed up their fact checking.

[tropicsgoddess]

That was extreme to say the least and I hope they fired that employee for not following protocol.

[bex1218]

This is why I believe in triple checking stuff like this. I am not a pharmacist nor a tech. But damn, if this is someone's life that we are taking into our hands, you damn right I wanna make sure its right. And the damned police didn't do shit. Isn't it their job to investigate these things first? I think the cop was on a power trip or something.

[bara]

This is one of the reasons why so many people distrust the police.
A woman who come limping along is accused of faking pain med and instead of simply asking her, for a phone number, they arrest her.

Sad, but all this could have been avoided with a phone call.

[bex1218]

I work at the competitor drug store as a simple cashier. My roommate is going into a management type position. She has to learn pharmacy. She showed me on her husbands pain meds that there was a code that they follow for how to tell the patient how to take meds and what not. And it showed in plain writing where the dang perscription came from (even controlled substances). I understand having codes and what not, but thats something that can backfire. Like this situation.

[Andara Bledin]

And the damned police didn't do shit. Isn't it their job to investigate these things first? I think the cop was on a power trip or something.

Honestly, I don't really blame the police. They have to be able to trust the professionals they work with to have performed due dilligence. In this case, they should have been able to trust the pharmacy personnel to have had their ducks in a row prior to being called.

As for her hobbling, there are some very good actors trying to obtain meds illegally, so that wouldn't be much of an indicator. The attached IV, on the other hand... >_>

^-.-^

[crashhelmet]

They called the police before they contacted her doctor.

“He said, ‘Well we believe that you have forged your pain pill prescription and we are calling your doctor now. But I’ve worked with this pharmacist a number of times and he’s never made a mistake,” Lenhart said.

It's her attorney that's assuming they contacted the wrong doctor. I'm wondering if they contacted any doctor at all.

[Rageaholic]

As someoe said in the comments, a woman is in crutches and has an IV and their first instinct is to arrest her? I agree with whoever said the cop was on a power trip. This whole thing could have easily been avoided with a few phone calls.

IMO, we should stop this unnecessary war on drugs. Arresting people who have a problem is not going to help them or anyone else.